


Enemies and Allegiances

by The_Son_of_Dathomir



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rise of Empire Era - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Electrocution, Force Choking, Force Lightning, Gen, Hallucinations, I think is what you kids call it, M/M, Sith Anakin Skywalker, Slow Burn, Strangulation, Suitless Vader, Torture, biting fingers off, dark side magic, enemies to slightly less enemies, prisoner Maul, to begrudgingly still most definitely not friends why would you even ask that, to horrible heart wrenching saddness, to some kind of weird power dynamic Maul insists on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2018-07-11 12:24:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 40
Words: 70,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7051270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Son_of_Dathomir/pseuds/The_Son_of_Dathomir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the hours after Order 66 nothing is certain. Even from within his prison cell, Darth Maul can feel that the future of the galaxy is in flux. In this bizarre window of time, everything is changing... and when the universe swings back into balance, Maul finds that while Anakin Skywalker has become a servant of the dark, his own place in the galaxy has become unclear. Sidious has all but condemned him to death, and Maul can't shake the strangest feeling that the Force is bringing him ever closer to Obi-Wan.  </p><p>As the story proceeds, the few survivors of Order 66 must work from the shadows to start paving the way for the rebellion they hope will come. Obi-Wan, however, is hesitant to train a new "chosen one", despite knowing he is their last hope.</p><p>No there is another.</p><p>But her path is unclear...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! As this story continues to grow I feel it is important I reach out to you and let you know what you're in for! The tags are gonna be updated as I write and the summary may change as the plot develops. 
> 
> So whats all this about. Well, this is a Maul Centric fic. We are mostly dealing with his narrative. Its a lot about his relationships to other characters. There will be a lot with Obi-Wan, as well as a little bit of his rivalry with Vader, and we will see his dedication to Sidious finally crumble. 
> 
> As the story progresses, expect some time jumps! As hinted at in the summary, we are gonna bring in some Original Trilogy characters (and at least name drop some from Rebels and TCWs!). 
> 
> To address romance real quick, this has recently been updated and tagged as ObiMaul, as it is heading slowly in that direction. I don't want to bait anyone. Yes that sexual tension you feel is intentional. But boy is it gonna take awhile for Maul and Obi-Wan to even tolerate one another. So if you are in it for the long haul, you wouldn't be disappointed! 
> 
> Wanna talk to me some more or look at my fan art? I'm the-son-of-dathomir.tumblr.com
> 
> Alright sorry this is long, but I didn't want to have to explain it all through tags. Enjoy!~

Maul could feel as much as hear Stass Allie walking down the corridor of the prison complex towards his cell. The Spire, as it was known, had been reclaimed from the Separatists early on in the Clone Wars, and it was here within its impenetrable walls that Maul had resided for many years. The Republic disliked taking prisoners, but in war they had little choice. Maul was but one of many war criminals too powerful to be kept on the normal prison worlds. Jedi Master Stass Allie had been appointed as the Warden of The Spire, a constant Jedi presence to maintain order in the prison and discourage any ideas of escape.

Master Allie had taken a special interest in Maul, he was one of the few Force users incarcerated and of those few the only true Sith the Republic had in captivity. Maul had endured her weekly visits for years now. It hadn't taken long for Master Allie to realize that Maul would never divulge any useful information about the Sith. Instead, they spent her weekly visits discussing the war or the weather or the finer points of holochess. On rare occasions their discussions even delved into the nature of the Force. And while Maul had no fondness for the Warden, their conversations were a welcome distraction.

Maul paced his cell, impatient for Allie to arrive. When she finally appeared beyond the ray shielded doorway, Maul couldn't help but snap, “Don't you feel it?”. To his growing fury, Allie ignored him. She calmly knelt down outside the cell, painstakingly arranging her flimsiplast notes around her. Only when she was completely settled did she look up and address Maul.

“Good evening, Maul. I trust you are still well.”

Maul practically spat. “Yes, Master Warden, quite well.” Frustrated, he gestured with his hands around him, “How do you not feel it?!”

Calm as ever, Allie said, “Feel what, Maul?”

“The Force!” Maul nearly shouted, “A build up of energy like I have never felt before, I can-” he gasped and clawed his fingers across his own chest in a desperate motion. “I can hardly breathe, it feels like I am being crushed and torn apart at the same time!” He started to cough and sank onto the floor, clearly exhausted.

Allie, however, was always wary of a trap. If this was a ruse or trick to escape, it was not going to be this easy. But to appease him, Allie did reach out into the Force.

“Nothing,” she said, “just the normal ebb and flow of the Force...”

Maul laughed humorlessly, “Are the Jedi really this blind?” But his laughed was cut short in a cough as his body began to spasm again. When he regained composure he continued, “Something is about to happen... something so huge I can feel it reverberating through the Force. Such massive reverberations that they will be felt for generations.”

Allie narrowed her eyes at Maul, she had never heard such desperate honesty in his voice. “Can you see what's about to happen?”

Maul glanced up to meet her gaze, his smile characteristically crooked.

“Yes...” He said slowly, “I think I can.”

And in that moment a blaster bolt seared it's way through Master Allie’s head, coming out the other side and ricocheting off the ray shield.

Standing above her corpse, a clone commander stood, warm blaster still in his hand. Into his communicator he said, “The Spire has been secured, the Jedi scum is dead.”

Maul watched curiously, not sure if he was next. While he was no Jedi, he had to wonder if this Clone would be so discriminating. The clone, however, paid Maul no heed, holstering his blaster and holding up his wrist. A small blue hologram appeared.

At the sight of the hologram, Maul retreated further into his cell, feeling the corner meet his shoulder blades as he pressed his body in tight. There was no way the small projection could see him, but that knowledge did little to ease Maul’s fear.

“Good work, Commander.” The robed hologram said, “I'm transferring you a list of prisoners to execute. Most of them are useless to me, but a few I need left alive. I have special business with them.”

“Yes, My Lord.”

The hologram blinked out and the clone commander trotted off.


	2. Chapter 2

Maul let out a shuddering breath. It felt like a dam had broken in the Force. The overwhelming build up of Force energy he had felt had finally been released. All around him now the Force rushed in torrents and whirlpools, chaotic and unstable. It would be so easy to let himself drift into the storm, swept away in the currents. But he wouldn't let that happen, it was in these next hours that the future of galaxy would be decided. Right now fate was still malleable. Maul tried to center himself, find the eye of the storm. He could feel so much, so much more than he ever could before. But something close by caught his attention, a presence he had not felt in a long time... He focused in on this presence and was surprised to feel the eddies of the Force were pushing them together. Like there was a magnetic quality that pulled the two of them together across space time inevitably towards each other. It wasn't chance that they would meet here today, it was the Force.

Maul only opened his eyes again when he could hear the pounding footsteps of clone guards hastening down the corridor, and with them the familiar presence he had sensed.

“Put this prisoner in the cell with the other!” snapped the Clone.

For a brief instant Maul caught Kenobi’s eye. They looked at each other through the red haze of the ray shield. In a flash both their minds were flooded with memories of the last time they had met. The strength of the Force blurring the line between thoughts and reality.

But they were both violently snapped back to reality as the ray shield fell for an instant and Kenobi was shoved inside. Maul would have seized on the instant to try and escape, but he was hit square in the chest with a stun pulse from the other guard who had clearly anticipated just such a plan. The ray shield went back up and the guards left the two of them sprawled on the cell floor.

Kenobi rolled over with a groan, seemingly content for the moment to just lay there on the floor. Maul on the other hand staggered back up as soon as he could, the last traces of the stun pulse lingering in his fingertips.

“Get up, Kenobi, I refuse to indulge this weakness.” Maul gestured disdainfully at him.

Obi-Wan half sat up, using the nearby wall for support. In a defeated tired voice he said. “I'm not going to fight you, Darth Maul.”

Maul snorted, “Well good, I didn't really expect you would. I think we can both agree that for the moment our mutual enemies are outside this cell, not within.”

Obi-Wan’s expression was full of distrust. In the years since their fight on Naboo, when Maul had killed Qui-Gon and Maul had subsequently been wounded and captured, Kenobi had never once come to visit. Maul could only assume that Kenobi had stayed up to date on Master Allie’s findings and reports regarding his incarnation. Much the same way that Maul had been careful to keep track of Kenobi’s exploits as a High General.

“You killed Qui-Gon...”

Maul could hardly stop himself from rolling his eyes at the utterly irrelevant and sentimental statement. Fighting to keep the disdain out of his voice Maul said slowly, “Yes, Kenobi, I killed your old master. He was the first casualty in a war both of us were too young and naive to even comprehend. And since that day many more have also lost their lives, many at your hand no less, General Kenobi.”

Obi Wan shook is his head, like he was trying to will away the reality of what Maul had said.

For a few moments they both stayed silent. Maul wondered if Kenobi could also sense the currents in the Force pushing their paths together. He would have to be stupid to think that their meeting was chance and not the will of the Force.

When Obi-Wan continued to remain silent, Maul pushed on. “A war, which if you haven't noticed, you just lost. But something so much bigger is coming, Kenobi. And I have every intention of being a part of it. I'm not going to sit here rotting in a cell as the galaxy is irrevocably changed- are you?”

“No, you're right, I'm not.” Obi-Wan sighed, mustering his strength and willpower to stand back up. “The war maybe lost, but the fight is not over.”

Maul nodded approvingly. “Good, Kenobi, we may survive this yet.” Then Maul paused, a serious note entering his voice, “I can sense so much in the Force right now, but I'm not sure what is real and what is just potential futures. The Force is so fluid, I can't see clearly. Darth Tyranus is... dead? And...” Maul closed his eyes searching the Force, “at the hand of your apprentice no less.”

Obi-Wan looked away sadly, “Yes, Anakin killed Count Dooku... and it turns out the other Sith lord we have been chasing all this time was the... was the Chancellor.”

Maul snorted interrupting him, “Well yes, Kenobi, I knew that part. Darth Sidious was my master. The Clone Army was his design as well, if you hadn't figured that one out yet.”

Obi-Wan shot him a gaze full of contempt. “Yes, I had put that together.” Then dark realization flickered across Obi-Wan’s face. “You knew all of this, the whole time...”

“Not all of it...” Maul sighed, “My master hardly deigned to include me in all his plans. But I knew enough, and as the war progressed I was able to fill in the blanks.”

“What about Anakin?” Obi-Wan suddenly asked, “How long has-” but he came up short when Maul only looked confused.

“Skywalker?” Maul shook his head, “If my master had plans for him, he kept them well hidden.” Maul narrowed his eyes and looked critically at Obi-Wan. “Why? What's happened?”

But it didn't appear that Obi-Wan intended to answer Maul. So instead, Maul looked into the Force again.

“Skywalker...” He breathed as he closed his eyes and searched, “Ahh...” He caught glimpses of the carnage in the Jedi temple, “Interesting. So not Skywalker anymore...” He hesitated, letting the Force bring him the words. “Now he is... Darth...”

“Stop it.” Obi-Wan snapped, breaking Maul’s trance.

“Well, this is an unforeseen turn of events. Though... maybe not that surprising.” Maul looked at Obi-Wan with a cruel smile.

“He was supposed to be the Chosen One...” Obi-Wan said more to himself than to Maul. “He was supposed to bring balance to the Force...”

“Who's to say he’s not,” Maul countered, “The Sith also have a legend about a Chosen One, an individual known as the Sith’ari. Destined to both destroy the Sith and make them stronger than ever... Skywalker may yet be the Chosen One- just not the one you were hoping for.”

Their conversation was cut short when the temperature in the room plummeted. Maul had nearly frozen to death in outer space before, but the cold that now surrounded them was somehow even worse.

  
With difficulty Maul released his breath and tried to breathe, expecting to see it steam in the air in front of him. But there was nothing. Maul caught Kenobi’s eye as they both realized what was happening at the same time. The room’s temperature was fine, the deathly chill they were both now experiencing was a Force phenomenon.

“Ahh... I think he has arrived.” Maul said, unable to control the quiver in his voice.

“Who?” Kenobi demanded, also fighting off his shivers, “Your old master?”

“No,” Maul said softly, “Your old apprentice.”


	3. Chapter 3

In the silence that followed, Maul tentatively reached out with the Force. The Skywalker boy was still miles away, but his presence in the Force was so powerful, so all-encompassing that even in the farthest reaches of the galaxy, Maul was certain he would still be able to feel it. He had severely underestimated Skywalker’s true potential. Maul glanced at Kenobi, knowing he must feel it too. And while Maul was full of awe and terror, Kenobi simply looked ill. 

“What a perversion Skywalker must feel like in the Force to you.” Maul mumbled, and if Obi-Wan heard him, he said nothing. 

 

“Well,” Obi-Wan stood up straight trying to sound tragic and noble, “If you want to escape, I think now would be the time. I’ll stay here and... and hold him off.” 

Maul laughed. “Escape? Kenobi, my only chance of survival is to stay right here.”

Obi-Wan looked at him confused. “Not to be a pessimist,” he said with some of his old charm, “But I doubt Anakin is on his way here just to have pleasant chat.” 

“I’m not a fool Kenobi, I’m perfectly aware that Skywalker is likely on his way here to kill me, or at least on his way to kill you and won’t be bothered by some collateral damage. But if I run now, my master will hunt me down, that I know for certain.” He shook his head, “No, there is only one way to survive this.” 

“You can’t be serious?” Obi-Wan balked, “After all this, you still think your master will take you back? Maul, he abandoned you- replaced you!”

“Yes, twice now it seems.” Maul sighed, it was obvious he would never understand. “Don’t misunderstand me, Kenobi. I’m hardly about to beg for my life, if it comes to it- I will challenge Skywalked for the title of apprentice. But if I’m going to die, it will be because I’m not worthy to be a Sith. Not because I am a suicidal idiot who thinks he can oppose the Dark Lord.” He gave a meaningful look at Kenobi.

“Funny,” Obi-Wan said, “that is exactly what I intend to do.” 

Maul laughed darkly, “I thought as much.” 

 

Another intense wave of frigid cold washed over Maul and Obi-Wan. Maul visibly staggered, his knees buckling with the weight of the dark energies flooding the area. Skywalker’s power was almost inconceivable, even to Maul, who had stood by the side of The Dark Lord of the Sith. And while his master’s presence was formidable, Maul had managed to keep his feet underneath him, well, most of the time at least. The only explanation was that just as Maul’s own Force abilities were heightened in this critical time, so were Skywalker’s. That the rushing currents of the Force were amplifying his dark side powers to inhuman levels. 

“I feel it,” Obi-Wan said as Maul spun to catch his eye. “I think he has just entered the complex.” 

The sounds of a lightsaber rending metal and the incoherent screams of prisoners echoed up from the lower level of the prison.

“Yes, I didn’t really need to use the Force to figure that out.” Maul snapped. He was having difficulty channeling his fear and anger into any kind of useful energy, and instead resorted to lashing out at Obi-Wan verbally. 

As the screaming and stamping boots of clone troopers grew nearer, Obi-Wan slipped his lightsaber out and into his hand. While his demeanor stayed calm and his saber unlit, Obi-Wan’s death grip on the handle gave away his fear.

Worse than the screams, however, was the silence that followed. Suddenly, there was no more stamping of feet or humming of lightsabers. Maul was vaguely aware that this was likely a Force manipulation, something to deceive them and play on their fears. The lights in the corridor beyond seemed dimmer somehow, the shadows in the corners of the room deeper. 

When Anakin finally walked into view, the dark side was practically palpable around him. His cloak fed into the shadows at his feet making it impossible to see where the darkness ended and Anakin Skywalker began. 

Reality was so fragile right now and the Force so strong, that Maul had to wonder if this was more than a simple trick. If what he was witnessing wasn’t a true physical manifestation of the dark side in human form. 

The final wave of deathly dark side energies crashed through the cell, and this time, Maul couldn’t keep his footing. He fell to his hands and knees with such force, it was like someone had kicked his legs out from under him. Breathing heavily, Maul was hard pressed just keep the rest of his body from being crushed into the ground. He glanced over to Kenobi, his stance told Maul that he could feel the weight as well, but somehow Kenobi was still standing. 

Maul didn’t dare look up, though he could hear the sound of the ray shield being deactivated and the slow calculated thump of footsteps. 

Unbidden, many long years of torturous conditioning kicked in. 

“My Lord...” Maul genuflected, the words and actions automatic, “...Vader.”


	4. Chapter 4

Anakin entered the cell, all but ignoring Maul, and instead moved towards Obi-Wan with slow determined steps.

“Anakin,” Obi Wan's voice was tight with restrained emotion, “Please, just stop this, I can help you.”

“Help me?” Anakin laughed and it sounded sad. Only a few feet separated them now. “The Jedi temple is all but in flames, Obi-Wan, the Republic has fallen. No, I'm afraid there is no helping me any more.”

Maul risked a glance up to watch the confrontation between Obi-Wan and his fallen apprentice. Anakin’s back was to him now, but he could still clearly see Obi-Wan’s face.

Obi-Wan shook his head and said desperately, “This is Sidious's work, you've been corrupted- this isn't you Anakin!”

“But I'm afraid it is, old friend.” Anakin gestured to the darkness around him, “This has always been inside of me. You just refused to see it.”

“I don't want to hurt you, Anakin,” Obi-Wan said, changing tactics. Clearly he couldn’t appeal to Anakin’s remaining humanity .

Anakin sighed heavily, “I know. And that’s why you won’t be able to defeat me.”

And just like that, Anakin struck out with his lightsaber, the blue blade arcing through the air and crashing into Obi-Wan’s desperate defense. Suddenly, the two of them were wheeling through the small cell and out into the larger hallway, their blades moving faster than the eye could see.

Maul had to jump to get out of their way, for an instant he was sure that a stray blow would cut him down. But as the two continued their fight out in the corridors and catwalks of the prison beyond, Maul couldn’t help but be entranced. It was almost impossible to see them, their blades, their parries and strikes too quick to make out, but in the Force they shone like supernovas.

Lightsabers duels only ever lasted a few minutes, especially between familiar opponents. At this speed and intensity, it was impossible that either combatant was actually strategizing as they fought. It was all in the Force now as they intuitively swung and struck, using every bit of their precognition to anticipate their opponent's moves. No Force user could keep up such a barrage for long, not without making a mistake.

Maul stood cautiously in the prison hallway now, watching the duel with interest. The two Jedi had moved into a connecting corridor nearby, their lightsabers screeching as they glanced off one another and the surrounding walls sending sparks and flecks of plasma flying. And while neither combatant was giving any ground, Maul could see the tell-tale signs of Kenobi starting to break.

Maul hesitated, he could feel it in the Force. This was one of the moments. The outcome of this duel was not decided yet, and Maul knew he was in a position to turn the tide if he so chose. He couldn’t see what the long term effects of throwing the fight might be, but Maul did know one thing, it wasn’t in the Sith nature to help one another. And he was tempted to throw the fight in favor of Kenobi for the simple pleasure of spiting Vader.

Maul could hear Anakin and Obi-Wan continuing to yell at one another as they fought.

“You can’t defeat me, Anakin!” Obi-Wan shouted over the sound of the clashing blades.

“Anakin Skywalker is dead!”

“Not yet he isn’t!” Obi-Wan said bringing his blade in for a deadly strike that almost decapitated Anakin, but was deflected at the last moment.

Maul glanced around the hallway, the two combatants were far too busy to pay him any attention. Grabbing the limp body of Allie, Maul dragged her corpse over to the closest computer terminal. Placing Allie’s hand onto the scanner the screen lit up giving him all-access to the network. With a few deft strokes Maul accessed the systems he was looking for. Satisfied, he looked back up to where the fight was happening, now he just needed to wait.

Maul pushed out with his own still heightened Force senses. Feeling the beat and rhythm of the fight. The intricate patterns and sequences they wove in the air. It felt like a fight they had had a million times, in tune with each other's style so intimately that no strike or block of flip came as a surprise.

Maul’s timing would have to be perfect.

The fight was entering what was inevitably it's last minute. And then it happened, Maul felt it in the Force only a split second before. Kenobi had managed to take Anakin by surprise for just an instant. Anakin had just barely let his defenses drop, but Kenobi seized the opening regardless. With a massive push of Force energies, Kenobi sent Anakin tumbling back several feet down the corridor. It wasn't enough hurt him or even to make time for a follow up strike, but it gave Obi-Wan breathing room for just a moment. And this moment was all Maul needed. His hand slammed down on the terminal, activating the prison’s emergency lockdown sequence.

All around them klaxons blared and red lights flashed. Every cell door instantly slammed shut, and in the corridor where Obi-Wan and Anakin fought, blast doors descended from the ceiling. Anakin, having regained his balance, rushed forwards trying to slip under the closing door that threatened to separate him from Obi-Wan. But he was too late. With a decisive hiss the doors sealed themselves, leaving Anakin trapped on the opposite side and Obi-Wan alone in the larger hallway with Maul.

“Did you just save me?” Obi-Wan asked incredulously, looking at Maul with bewilderment.

“Don’t be so full of yourself, Kenobi." Maul spat in disgust. "You’re survival was an unfortunate side effect. Vader may have already replaced me, but I don’t intend on making his job any easier. If killing you was an order from my master, then I’m intrigued to see what happens when Vader has to report that he has failed.”

Obi-Wan shook his head in disbelief, Sith politics were clearly not something he could wrap his mind around.

They both stopped short when the sound of a lightsaber tearing through metal caught their attention. The blast door that was currently the only thing standing between them and Anakin was slowly but steadily being cut. It was only a matter of minutes before Anakin would force his way through.

Obi-Wan looked around desperately, clearly trying to pick an escape route.

“The air vents will be your best chance.” Maul said, gesturing to a large vent grate above them.

Obi-Wan looked suspicious, like Maul’s suggestion might be a trap.

“I’ve been here for years, Kenobi, don’t you think I’ve plotted out every possible escape route? And I’m telling you, if you want to get out of here alive, the air vents are the only way.”

If Obi-Wan was going to argue, he was cut short by Anakin’s scream of incoherent rage from the other side of the blast door. A person sized hole was almost cut through the metal. Instead, Obi-Wan moved the grate aside with the Force and jumped up clambering his way in. Once inside, however, he hesitated.

“Come with me.”

“I already told you, Kenobi, I’m staying here.” And with that, Maul used his own Force abilities to move the grate back into place, blocking Obi-Wan from his view. And just in time, as Anakin smashed his way through the blast door, breathing hard and a yellow tinge to his eyes.

“Where is he!” Anakin practically screamed, any illusion of calm he had had before was now completely gone.

“Escaped, My Lord.” Maul had to fight to keep the edge of smugness out of his voice. Instead he ducked his head in deference and to hide any smile that might give him away.

Enraged, Anakin began to swing his blade wildly. Slicing through railings and scoring the walls. The tantrum occasionally punctuated with howls of fury.

While Maul had no desire to go toe to toe with Anakin ( _Vader_ , he mentally corrected himself), he certainly cut far less of the terrifying figure now. Disheveled, upset and unbalanced. Not that his sheer power still wouldn't still be enough to defeat Maul, but for the first time there was a glimmer of possibility that Maul might still be able to out maneuver him.

Breathing heavily, Vader finally finished his destruction of Spire property. Retracting his blade and clipping it decisively onto his belt. With purpose he turned away and started a determined walk down the corridor.

“Follow!” He shouted, an order Maul could only assume was directed at him. He hastened to fall in a few cautious steps behind. Maul was simply marveled at the fact that he had actually survived this far. While he couldn't predict what awaited him, it seemed that at least a swift death at Vader's hand had been ruled out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I haven't done one of these note things yet so here we go. First off, thank you to everyone liking and commenting on the work it means a lot to me! Especially since I haven't really been a part of the fanfiction scene for probably 8 years now haha. 
> 
> So this this chapter was pretty difficult to write. I had to make some big decisions about Anakin's characterization. And I had to write a lightsaber duel, which was harder than I anticipated. I pulled a lot from Drew Karpyshyn for inspiration and I'm pretty sure just started paraphrasing at one point haha. 
> 
> But next chapter we will return to the slower pacing and more emotional/psychological focus. 
> 
> Thanks for sticking around guys!


	5. Chapter 5

The bridge of the super star destroyer felt more like a throne room than a command center. The the only real lights in the room illuminated a large chair positioned in its center and set well above the computer stations via a raised walkway. The chair and its occupant were faced away from the lift door, and instead they were gazing out of the viewport into the space beyond.

Vader showed no reservations as he exited the lift and marched swiftly onto and across the platform. Heading directly to the chair that was turned away from them. Maul, not willing to let his fear betray him, also forced himself from the lift and out onto the walkway.

“Did you complete your mission?” Asked the voice from the chair.

“Yes.” Vader replied, standing just behind the chair. “All the prisoners you wanted personally executed are dead.”

“Are they now?”

Maul recognized the intonation, a challenge for Vader to continue with his lie. But he wondered if Vader would be as perceptive of the trap. The extra pause told Maul that Vader was weighing his options, gauging how much his new master actually knew.

“Not _all_ the prisoners. One managed to escape.” Vader ultimately decided against deception, a choice Maul knew from experience had just saved him from a lot of pain and suffering. Not that honesty would often fare much better when it came to failure, though it could be the difference between being alive or dead at the end.

“That _is_ disappointing.” Sidious said, his calm voice doing nothing to diminish the danger in his words. “The last apprentice who disappointed me was beheaded. And the one before that, I let rot in a prison cell for thirteen years.”

“I’ll find him! And destroy him- no matter what!” Vader blundered on.

“No, you won’t. I’ll assign someone else more capable to that task, perhaps a bounty hunter or a mercenary.”

Even a non-Force sensitive being would have been able to see Vader seething, not just from the wound to his pride but also the knowledge that he would not be the one the end his old master’s life. However, with great restraint, no doubt well practiced on the Jedi Council, Vader said, “As you wish.”

“I see you managed to complete your other assignment at least.” Sidious still had yet to turn and face Maul, but his presence in the Force had hardly gone unnoticed. “It’s been a long time, my old apprentice.”

Maul didn’t say anything, thirteen years had taught him a lot about patience. He wasn’t about to rush into any of the verbal traps Vader was so carelessly walking into.

“I had initially brought you here to make an example of you. To show my new apprentice the true powers of the dark side, and then have him claim your life, officially defeating his last rival and securing his place at my side. But now I see that he is not ready for that lesson, or that privilege.”

Maul wasn’t foolish enough to feel relief. He may have been left to die in prison for his failure, but it had been at the mercy of the Jedi, who were surprisingly merciful. It would hardly due as atonement in his master’s eyes. No, the lack of a swift death only meant something more excruciating was to come.

“Leave us now, I’ll find a use for you soon enough.”

“Yes, My Lord.” It was the only safe thing to say, something Maul assumed Vader would learn soon enough if he wanted to survive his apprenticeship.

_______________________________

Maul allowed himself the smallest amount of reprieve when the lift doors closed behind him and whisked him far away from the bridge. He could feel the Force stabilizing again in the wake of Vader’s explosion into being. He could sense less in the Force, his reach reduced to its normal levels and his foresight clouded again.

It was taking all of Maul’s long practiced calm and patience to stay focused. Every fiber of his being screamed to run or fight, an urge his younger self would have readily given into. He could easily leave this starship a mess of corpses, but he could never defeat the combined strength of Sidious and Vader. His body would just be one more of the corpses lining the halls. If he wanted to stay alive, he would have to use his intelligence to do so. His rash and arrogant nature was what had him captured in the first place, a mistake that had cost him thirteen years of his life. Making a similar mistake now would only end in an agonizing death.

He noted dully that he was being given free roam of the ship. He had expected cuffs and armed escorts. Disheartening as it was, clearly Sidious didn’t view him as dangerous enough to require such precautions. Though it was more likely that his master had simply reached the same conclusion as he; he couldn’t fight his way off this ship if he wanted to.

  
Eventually a trooper approached him, directing him to what would be his quarters for the foreseeable future.

Maul laughed mirthlessly. It was smaller than his cell in The Spire and with even less amenities. No doubt an attempt to stir up memories of his own apprenticeship, when even _having_ four walls had been a luxury. But that was not what he was laughing at. What had caught his eye was in the middle of the near barren room. Placed directly in the center and neatly folded was a set of what looked suspiciously like his old robes and atop that his lightsaber.


	6. Chapter 6

Maul sat in the middle of the depressing room and meditated. A skill he had never been terribly good at as an apprentice, but one he had worked on quite extensively during his incarceration. Of course he would still rather be fighting than sitting, and battle meditation was an oxymoron he would never understand, but he had eventually come to see the merits of meditation. It could prove useful in certain situations- like the one he currently found himself in.

Besides, meditation would have to suffice since it was far too dangerous to sleep. The Sith nature was to betray and scheme, and that quality was only amplified by three of them being in such close proximity. It was just as likely that Vader would take initiative and attempt to kill Maul because he was a rival as it was that Vader would approach him with a temporary allegiance to take down Sidious. And while Sidious gave of the air off being in complete control, his authority would only last as long as Vader and Maul were distracted by each other. He would have to be foolish to think he could command them both for any extended length of time. This was the disorder that happened when the Rule of Two was broken. No longer were the Sith unified, now their energies were turned towards each other as they rivaled for power. 

It would be unwise for Maul to sleep now. Instead, he drew upon his discomfort, the ache in his muscles from staying perfectly still, the hunger from the food he had denied himself, and the anxiety produced from his forced sensory deprivation. These weren't the meditation techniques of the Jedi. There was no peace or solace as he mediated, only dull pain that he fostered into strength. 

The energies that Maul drew from were not the normal well of fear and anger all Sith could access in battle. Instead, these dark side energies were a steady flow of apathy and nihilism. But it fed him, sustaining his body and focusing his mind. It wasn't as good as food and sleep, but when food and sleep were in short supply, it would keep him going. And while the meditation would energize Maul, he knew full well that the dark side couldn't heal. His meditation would not cure him of any ailments, it would only sustain his will to fight on. This was one of the main reasons the dark side took such a physical toll on its users. The Force would allow them to neglect and push past mortal injuries and discomforts to survive, but the damage was never healed, only forgotten about while they persevered. If Maul continued to not eat, his body would start to digest his muscles, and no mediation could help him then. 

Eventually, Maul’s inherent agitation did get the better of him. He wasn't going to sit on the floor while Vader no doubt plotted his demise and Sidious concocted his own unpleasant agenda. However, Maul didn't have enough time to decide on his own next move. Over the speaker mounted on the ceiling a bored clone troopers voice said, “Proceed to level ten training area.”

A message obviously intended for him. Maul didn't hesitate. Whatever was waiting for him in the “training area” it sounded like it would at least be on his terms. No more word games or politics, only strength and skill. Though Maul still didn't like his odds against Vader's innate talent, Maul _had_ been a student of the dark side virtually his entire life. Whereas Vader had been initiated all of a day ago. And while Anakin the Jedi Knight would be a serious threat, Vader the Sith Lord may not yet have reached his full potential. Though, when such a time came that Vader was in full possession of his powers, the likes of which Maul had caught a glimpse of in his battle with Obi-Wan, he doubted any creature in the galaxy would be able to rival him. But right now, Maul had to hope that Vader’s dark side connection was inconsistent at best. Yes, in the time right after his fall he had been a force of nature, but that was in the heat of the moment, most likely the pinnacle of his anger and fear. Now the question was; would he be able to continue to draw strength from it? It would be a skill foreign to a Jedi who had spent his life repressing emotions. 

___________________________________________

Exiting the room and heading to level ten, Maul felt for the lightsaber at his side. He could feel the rough patches where he had welded it together himself. It wasn’t sleek and sophisticated like the curved hilt used by Darth Tyranus, but nothing about Maul was. And as far as Maul was concerned, Vader and Tyranus shared the same flaw, they were Jedi. It could be said that Maul the last true Sith in the legacy, not just a Jedi who had fallen off the path. And it was this, he hoped, that would give him the edge in whatever trials he was about to face.

He had killed a Jedi before. And if that was all Vader truly was, just another Jedi, than Maul allowed himself the smallest hope that he could kill him as well.


	7. Chapter 7

Lightsaber in hand, Maul approached the doors to the “training area”. At his close proximity the doors slid apart to allow him entrance and he quickly took in the room. There wasn’t much to look at, it had likely been a storage hold at one point, open and empty with a high ceiling. Maul hadn’t exactly imagined that there would be training mats lining the floor and walls, but there wasn’t a lot here to train _with_. No battle droids to practice against or elaborate death traps to escape. The only other thing in the room, besides Maul, was Vader... But maybe that was enough. 

As the doors sealed behind him, and Maul heard the unmistakable sound of them locking, he could only assumed that training began now. He dropped his center of gravity, and held out his unlit saber in one arm. He didn’t like being on the defensive, especially before a fight had even begun, but now was not the time for reckless demonstrations of power. 

Vader barely acknowledged Maul’s presence. His only reaction was to unclip his own lightsaber and hold it ever so slightly away from his body. With slow steps, they both began to circle one another.

Over a speaker somewhere in room’s ceiling an unmistakable voice said, “Begin.”

In an instant both their sabers flashed to life. Maul only ignited one end of his blade. He didn’t doubt that Vader was already well aware of his fighting techniques. But the strength of his saberstaff wasn’t that was better for combat per se, but rather that its unorthodoxy would surprise his opponent, putting them off balance- encouraging them to over think what would otherwise be a straightforward fight. And that was a trick he was not willing to use just yet. 

 

Their blades met in an awkward exchange. Vader striking and Maul blocking, Maul cautiously moving in for a predictable counterattack that was easily deflected. A sequence they repeated a few more times. 

Maul was bewildered. They were actually _training_. Their steps and strikes were slow and calculated, moving through the almost ceremonial Form II style blocks and parries. Were they Padawans now, dueling with training sabers? The flow of the fight was unmistakable, they were practicing basic sequences Maul could only imagine neither of them had actually used since their training days. Makashi wasn’t exactly a practical battlefield style anymore. But Maul was caught in the rhythm of the fight now, his body moving on muscle memory and little else. 

Maul considered being the one to end their inane dance. To jump or twist and surprise Vader, maybe even get in a lethal strike before he had a chance to react. But he was still wary, Vader seemed as uninterested in their duel as he was. And Maul was sure Sidious didn’t call them in here to practice their footwork. 

They continued to move through predictable sequences for a few more minutes. Neither putting their full weight into their blows, giving and taking ground in an almost choreographed way. Then, Sidious’s voice on the speaker blared again. 

“Do you see your opening, Lord Vader?”

“Yes.” Vader didn’t take his eyes off Maul.

“Good, then take it.”

Maul quickened his movements, the fight was about to change. He brought his strike down harder this time, but Vader met it with equal force. Now their blades sparked as they collided, sending shock waves down through their hilts and into their arms, Maul had to hold onto his weapon with all his physical strength as well the Force to stop it from being flung from his grasp. When their blades finally separated, Maul was forced to give ground and take a few steps back from the recoil. He had his blade up already, prepared for a new attack, but what hit him next wasn’t Vader’s blade.

Instead, purple tendrils of lightning bypassed his defense and caught him square in the chest causing his body to spasm uncontrollably. But they were weak and Vader could only sustain the blast for a few moments. Still, it had been enough to knock Maul off his feet. But no stranger to the effects of Force lightning, Maul recovered quickly. He hurried to defend against the fatal strikes he assumed were about to be rained down on him. But when he looked up, Vader had retreated a few steps away, giving him space to regain his breath. Cautiously Maul stood, eyes locked on Vader.

“Again” Sidious's voice commanded from above. 

Gone was their polite dueling from before, now Vader rushed him with a flurry of attacks that Maul immediately recognized as Djem So. This time when they blades clashed, Maul could feel their fight in the Force. He was, unfortunately, still stuck on the defensive. Vader’s swift advance and the fact that Maul was still having difficulty breathing saw to that. But despite the new level of anger and ferocity in their fight, Maul was certain that it was all still simple practice. If Maul was going to die in this fight, it wasn’t going to be from a lightsaber strike. 

Maul fell quickly into his old fighting style, the long ago mastered sequences of Juyo as natural as breathing. But Vader was a formidable opponent, and Maul was struggling to get the upper-hand in their fight. All he seemed to be doing was giving ground as Vader relentlessly pushed through his defenses. 

Their blades met in another cosmic clash of red and blue, screeching as they ground against one another. Wary of Vader’s earlier move, Maul ducked out of the conflict, trying to deflect Vader’s blade away rather than risk being pushed back again by sheer force. But Vader took advantage of the situation, hooking his own saber just right as to dislodge Maul’s weapon from his grip. Disarmed, Maul couldn’t do anything to stop what happened next. 

This time the Force lightning was stronger. Still not even close to what Sidious could conjurer, but enough to knock Maul down again, and keep him there. The energy surged through him, lighting up every nerve ending in pain as his muscles contracted and spasmed. It lasted longer this time, and when Maul could finally control his lungs again, he didn’t wait for the signal to begin.

Leaping from the floor, every movement fueled by his rage, Maul descended on Vader. If for only a moment, he had the upper hand. The dark side flowed through him now, relishing on his pain and anguish. Each strike was augmented with the Force, crashing through Vader’s defenses and landing a few wounds along the way. This was what it meant to be a Sith, to draw on the pain and the suffering and transform it into indomitable power. Vader had managed to keep a stoic face this long, but in wake of Maul’s onslaught, he could see the panic in his features.

They crashed around the room, all pretense of grace and style gone. Fighting as much with their blades as with their fists and feet. At one point, Maul took the opportunity to slam his horned head right under Vader’s jaw, he had been aiming for his throat. 

But the tides were turning. With every blow Maul landed, he could see Vader’s anger growing. Maul knew that if was going to have any chance of defeating Vader, he would have to strike him down before Vader could truly connect to the dark side. 

But it was already too late. Maul felt it in the Force, the unmistakable cold that rushed to fill the room, the sudden dimness of the lights. Maul desperately tried to finish their fight, leaping and striking with everything he had. But now it was like attacking a durasteel wall, nothing he could do was breaking through Vader’s impenetrable Force barrier.

Vader barely lifted a finger, and Maul felt a wave of Force energy knock him away and into the wall. What came next wasn’t a surprise. 

This time the Force lightning crackled and hissed in all the radiance that Sidious’s did. It lit the entire room in a blinding light and caused the mechanics in the room to spark and smoke. It was so all encompassing that Maul wasn’t even sure if what he was feeling was pain, but the telltale smell of burning flesh told him that his body was indeed dying. 

When the lightning storm subsided, Vader let out a shuddering breath. Then there was quiet in the room. Maul was conscious, but barely.

“Again.” Sidious’s voice crackled from the now partially broken speaker. 

Vader looked at Maul, waiting for him to stand and fight again. Maul would have laughed, if he could even feel his mouth. He knew Sidious wasn’t talking to him. 

“Again!” The voice shouted. 

And slowly, realization dawned on Vader’s face. He nodded, holding up his hands, purple energy sparking around his finger tips. 

The blast of purple energy wasn’t as strong this time, but Vader sustained it for much longer. Only ceasing when he was out of breath from the exertion. 

“Again.”

Another blast. At some point Maul lost consciousness, though flicks of purple continued to disrupt his sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Maul woke on the cold floor of his cell, still aboard the _Eclipse_. He wasn't surprised to be alive, he knew he hadn’t outlived his usefulness yet. He was surprised, however, to feel his burns just as livid as when he had passed out. Maul was no stranger to Sidious’s training methods. He had been on the receiving end of many painful lessons and punishments, but Sidious had never allowed him to wallow in his pain and self pity. That just wasn't productive. His master was hardly going to let him take sick days to lay in bed healing. No, he was always thrown in a bacta tank, pumped full of stimpacks and sometimes back to his training by that evening. Maul was shocked to see that while he had likely been unconscious for a day, none of his wounds had been treated.

He hadn't anticipated this. He could have survived being beaten within an inch of his life on a daily basis as long as he was being chemically healed in between. After all, it was what he had been trained for, to withstand any interrogation or torture techniques. But this was different, these wounds were already starting to fester and Maul wouldn't be surprised if the infection had spread to his other vital systems. It didn’t make sense, he wouldn't even be worth sparring with in this condition.

Maul knew that Sidious’s design for his death was going to be long and painful, but somehow he hadn't imagined that it would involve him laying on the floor as his body went into septic shock.

  
All Maul could do was center himself and use the pain. He moved his body more with the Force than with his own damaged muscles. Sitting and finally standing up. He wondered, had he been a practitioner of the light, if he could have healed himself with the Force. It would certainly be useful right now. He didn’t often envy the Jedi, but right now he made an exception. His thoughts flickered for a moment to Kenobi, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he had made the wrong choice. But he shook his head to dispel the thought. He had heard Sidious, Kenobi was being hunted down and killed- perhaps he was dead already. There was no escaping this, the strong were meant to rule the weak, and to go against that natural order was suicide.

Maul moved through the most rudimentary of movements, stepping gingerly and bending his arms, checking for any other damage. While the burns were extensive, everything else seemed in working order. He could work with that. It would take several long hours, and every ounce of his willpower, but he could bend this pain. He would channel it and transform it into power. It was a common enough story, that the truly great Lords of the Sith all existed in near constant pain. Their bodies literally rotting away as their spirits refused to die. Stronger in the Force because of their physical torment.

  
Maul settled himself. These burns were a gift, if he could just figure out how to use them. He closed his eyes and began the arduous process of meditating his pain into power. But for a few moments, before his body and mind lapsed into the unique meditative space all Force users could access, his mind was free to roam. It brought back Kenobi for a moment, and the overwhelming sense that the Force was pushing their fates together. But, that seemed unlikely now. Kenobi was on the run and Maul was... Well, he was here. And what was he doing here? Apparently, living out an elaborate death sentence from the looks of it. What was it that he had told Kenobi? That if he was going to die, it would be because he wasn't worthy to be a Sith? That his death would come at Vader’s hand in a ferocious battle of dominance? That seemed unlikely now as well. Maul was now positive, that regardless of Vader’s success or failure as an apprentice, Maul himself would never regain that title. Which begged the question, what was his next move? Survival was key, and whatever this was, it certainly felt a lot like dying.

But before he could muse further, his mind stilled and all he could feel was the Force. Deep and dark and all consuming. How the Jedi ever found the Force comforting was mystery to him. One brief look into its depths made it obvious that it wasn’t a benevolent energy guiding the galaxy. It was raw and untamed, ever ready to tear their universe apart at the seams. There was no bringing balance to it, only dominating it with your own spirit. Forcing it to work for you through sheer exertion of will. As he did right now.

The meditation process would be lengthy, but Maul figured he had time. His next training session couldn’t be for awhile if Sidious expected Maul to even be standing for it. Maul assumed it would be days at least that he would be left alone. Which was why Maul was so surprised, when less than twelve hours later, he heard the speaker in the room buzz to life, playing a familiar message. Level ten, training area, leave your lightsaber.


	9. Chapter 9

Maul mentally chided himself for even being surprised. Maybe he _had_ been locked in the Jedi prison too long after all if he expected anything but cruelty from a captor. And while It might not look like he was imprisoned, the room he called a cell didn’t even have a locked door, he was a far cry from free. He had to wonder though, with Sidious as Emperor now, was anyone in the galaxy truly free? That had been the plan along, hadn’t it, to force the weak into servitude. To dominate the galaxy with an iron rule. Maul supposed he had always just envisioned himself on the winning side. But maybe that had been foolish too. Maul had had thirteen years to reflect on how Sidious had used him, to come to terms with the reality that he was never meant to become a true Lord of the Sith. But up until now, Maul had kept his loyalty to Sidious. His master could discard him, that was his right, but Maul could never be free of his master.

That was all changing now.

Maul knew it wouldn't have taken much for Sidious to keep control over him, the mere illusion of a possibility that he could ever regain his honor would have kept him eternally at his Master’s beck and call. But Sidious had denied him even that fantasy and Maul could feel his last shreds of his loyalty slipping away...

Maul stood in a fluid motion, while the burns were still visible they no longer appeared to affect his movements. A trick of the dark side, of course. Somewhere in Maul’s mind the burns were still searing and blistering with every flex of his muscles, but that part was buried deep now. On the surface, he felt nothing but strength. He stalked out of room and into one of the halls of the ship, taking his anger out on passing troopers whenever they were unfortunate enough to cross his path. Maul had no illusions that this training session with Vader would go any better than the last time.

____________________

Maul eventually stormed into the training room, not allowing himself to hesitate on the threshold. He only stopped his advance when his vision focused in on Vader, once again waiting for him. But instead of standing prepared to duel, this time he was simply sitting on the floor with his eyes closed. Maul contemplated springing on him now and attempting to kill him with his bare hands. But Maul knew that while he couldn’t feel his injuries right now, it didn't mean they were gone. Even augmented with the Force, his limbs simply wouldn’t have the strength to crush Vader.

Instead, Maul continued to stand, studying Vader carefully. He hid them well, but Maul could see burn marks peeking out from the edges of Vader’s tunic. Surely not as extensive as Maul’s own, but there nonetheless. Obviously, Vader’s training session hadn’t ended with Maul. No doubt Sidious had some constructive criticism to offer afterwards, and apparently a demonstration.

  
“Sit down, Maul.” Sidious’s words echoed once again through the speakers. His voice brimmed with irritation as he practically spat Maul’s name.

Maul only glared definantly at the speaker in the ceiling for a moment. Even when Maul had still been a dutiful apprentice, he would never venture so far as to say that he had _respect_ for his master. Respect was a concept the Sith only employed loosely. And usually in the abstract way one might when describing a long dead Lord. It was hardly a thing Maul had ever felt for a living being. No, Sith relationships were much simpler than that. For Maul, like every Sith before him, his master was the physical embodiment of all that he craved. Ultimate power, strength and mastery of the dark side. And until Maul was strong enough to wrest the title of Dark Lord for himself, Maul would completely and unequivocally belong to his master. There was no _respect_ in such a relationship, no reverence or admiration. There was dominance and subjugation until the inevitable day that the tables would turn and the mantle would be taken by force. _That_ was the way of the Sith.

Or it _was_ at least. Had been for nearly a millennium. But in a thousand lifetimes, Maul still couldn’t imagine Sidious ever allowing anyone take that title from him. And maybe he wouldn’t have to, the Rule of Two had been put in place to bring them to this moment, when the Sith would reign supreme once more. Did Sidious even need a pupil to succeed him now? Was it possible that he might reign forever? But without that leverage, without the promise of succession, how could he ever control an apprentice like Vader? He certainly couldn’t control Maul any more, not like that anyway, and maybe Vader had just yet to realize that Sidious didn’t have anything to truly offer him in return for his dedication. While Sidious ruled quite well by fear and intimidation, demanding service through such means would never be as effective as the loyalty given by volition. Though Maul had never had a choice in his apprenticeship, he had stayed with Sidious of his own free will. He wanted the power Sidious promised and he would do anything to obtain it. So he was quite willing when Sidious demanded everything of him. With that possibility of power gone, however, Sidious’s only option now was to control Maul through fear. A technique he didn’t mind employing at all.

This time Maul wasn’t surprised. He continued to stand in direct opposition to his order and waited for the inevitable. He didn’t have to wait long, Sidious wasn’t known for his patience. The Force shifted ever so slightly around Maul, and then he felt it. His throat closed, denying his lungs air and depriving his body of oxygen.

For a few tense moments, Maul continued to stare up at the speaker, knowing Sidious must be watching from some camera nearby. Maul’s face remained impassive, he would hardly give Sidious the satisfaction of seeing him clawing at his own throat. Besides, he was trained for this. An interrogation droid would be hard pressed to break him, a little oxygen deprivation wasn’t going to send him to his knees that quickly.

  
But the long seconds ticked on as Maul meticulously counted them in his head. He knew exactly how long he could withstand the assault and he would not break until a second before. However, that time came quickly enough, with two hearts demanding oxygen he couldn’t keep this show of defiance up any longer.

Reluctantly, Maul obeyed and sank to the floor cross legged. But, to his horror, the pressure restricting his throat did not let up. He managed to keep his face impassive a few moments longer, but finally the primal fear of death took control of his body. His body arched as he started to cough with no air, just a heaving desperate motion that did nothing to alleviate the strain in his chest. He had fallen from his sitting position to a writhing mass on the floor. Despite his most desperate efforts, he couldn’t stop his hands from wringing his own neck, futilely trying to fight away invisible hands he knew full well weren’t there.

  
He was about to tear a hole in his neck in some kind of last resort to let the air inside his body, when he saw the edges of his vision going dark. It was an odd relief, knowing that in a few moments he would be unconscious. But even that was taken from, because just as his vision began to fade, he felt the pressure ease up. Not completely, not yet, but enough to allow him a few desperate gasps of air. It cleared his vision and for a few blissful seconds filled his lungs, but just as quickly he felt the pressure reapplied.

“Are you done wasting my time?” Sidious asked over the speakers.

Maul certainly didn’t have enough air to make any verbal response, but he desperately moved his head in an affirmative motion.

“Good.”

The Force hold lasted a second more, and then finally lifted. Not surprisingly, somewhere along the way Maul had lost his concentration in the Force and the pains from his burns had begun to seep back into his conscious thoughts.

But the ferocity of Maul's renewed resentment of Sidious made him strong. Maul found his center again, pushing away the pain, both in his wounds and in his chest, and pulled himself up off the floor, returning to a sitting position. He was breathing heavily, but refused to show any other sign of weakness.

“Let’s begin.” Maul said, eyeing Vader with just flicker of a crazed grin. Was that revulsion he saw in Vader’s grimace? Did the scene he had just witnessed somehow offended what little was left of his humanity? If that was so, Maul thought, Lord Vader certainly had much to learn...


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick heads up for this chapter, it gets a little dark! Its all hallucinations and nothing too graphic but proceed with caution if death and dying bothers you. 
> 
> Other than that, enjoy!

For a brief instant Vader and Maul locked eyes.Whatever emotion Vader had let slip onto his features he quickly brushed away. Decisively he closed his eyes and forced himself into a deep meditation. Maul tilted his head, unsure what this training session was meant to accomplish. He supposed they could simply be locked in here to meditate indefinitely. To see who collapsed from hunger and exhaustion first. But that seemed like a waste of time. Eventually Maul closed his eyes as well, and while he wasn’t about to get comfortable, this was an improvement over last time. 

Quickly enough Maul saw what he was here for. The weak tendrils of darkness flickering on the edge of his consciousness were almost imperceptible at first, but slowly they grew in strength. Dark side sorcery, that was what they were practicing today.

Maul pushed back, banishing the threads of Vader’s magic from his mind. He heard Vader grunt at the rebuff, and after a moment of concentration he tried again and with greater determination. This time, however, Maul allowed him into his mind. Keeping his mental barrier up would just be a waste of energy. He could feel Vader searching through his thoughts. 

_Go on._ Maul thought, hoping Vader could hear him. _What do you think you’re going to find._

Soon after, the real assault came. At first, it was abstract, simply waves of darkness, the sensation of falling forever and indistinct flashes of disturbing images all flooded Maul’s mind. 

Maul laughed out loud. “You’re going to have to do better than that.” It probably wasn't wise to goad Vader, but his attempt was laughable. Darkness and scary images were hardly going to have any effect on Maul. Once again, with ease, he pushed back, dispelling the trick and forcing Vader’s presence out of his mind. 

He could hear Vader breathing loudly across from him, even these feeble attempts were causing him a lot of strain. The pause was longer this time, but soon enough Vader was trying again. 

Now the hallucinations were more vivid, Maul could almost believe his eyes were open and that what he was seeing was real. Vader had conjured up long forgotten images from his childhood, indistinct memories of other Zabraks on his homeworld Dathomir, except now it was burning. All around him they were dying. Was that supposed to be his family being murdered by shadowy figures? It did nothing to unsettle him. This time, instead of repelling the images, Maul added to them. Imaging the world in even brighter flames, killing the survivors himself, soon the hallucination was nothing more than Maul murdering the imaginary Zabraks in a fiery battlefield. Vader let the hallucination to slip away, the fire fading and the landscape of Maul’s mind returning to quiet darkness. But Vader hadn’t given up yet.

It was a seamless transition this time. From the darkness stepped Sidious, which was enough to send a chill down Maul’s spine. This scene was less elaborate than the last, but the attention to detail was impressive. This imaginary Sidious was an almost perfect replica. 

“You’ve failed me,” said the illusion, its tone and cadence a perfect recreation. “Failed me one too many times.”

Try as he might, Maul could feel himself slipping deeper under Vader’s spell. He was still aware that none of what he saw or felt was real, but it was becoming harder to tell the difference.

“You are useless to me now, no longer worthy of your Darth title.”

Maul could feel the onslaught of hopelessness and fear that Vader pushed his way, weakening his resolve and driving him deeper into the illusion.

It was a good attempt, Maul conceded, Vader had managed to identify his greatest fear. But he underestimated Maul’s resilience. 

Breaking through the magic and into the real world again, Maul chuckled. 

“That’s hardly a nightmare, Lord Vader, that’s just my reality. You don’t need dark side magic to show me this.” And with that, Maul pushed back one final time, dispelling any last hold Vader had on his mind. “My turn now.” 

Maul thrust his consciousness out at Vader, slipping effortlessly into his mind. He didn’t waste anytime, pulling at the most obvious sources of Vader’s fear and distress. Maul had never really trained in this kind of dark side manipulation, but Vader was so full of fear and anger, it was easy to drag it to the surface and torment him. 

Maul didn’t even know who these people were, there was an older lady who looked like she was dead already. No matter, Maul recreated her death for Vader in a thousand different ways. First she was gutted, then burned, then struck down by Maul’s own hand, and next by Vader. Each time she died in Vader’s arms. 

The sequence was causing Vader obvious distress but Maul wouldn’t allow him any reprieve. He dug a little deeper, found a younger woman in his memories this time. She seemed vaguely familiar to Maul but he didn’t care. Maul killed her over and over as well, focusing his energies on making Vader feel powerless, like he was too late. Always a second too slow to stop her death. Something else floated to the surface in Vader’s mind, it was more like a dream than a memory. Were they children?

Maul added them to his horrendous montage of death. The woman dying as she gave birth to them. The two of them being born dead. Now they were born but suddenly killed by their mother. The short illusion recreated itself in countless horrific ways behind Vader’s closed eyes. Each one bloodier and more disturbing than the last. 

Maul was just as wrapped up in his spell as Vader was, so he didn’t sense what was coming next. He should seen that he was pushing Vader too far, felt Vader’s anger growing too quickly and unchecked. But Maul was enjoying his power too much. When Vader violently broke out of the spell, pushing Maul away both mentally and physically, it caught Maul completely off guard. A blast of Force energy exploded outwards from around Vader, slamming Maul several yards back and into the wall.


	11. Chapter 11

This had been a grave miscalculation. Vader’s energy blast sent Maul crashing into the wall and now Vader used the Force to keep him there. For the second time that day Maul could feel invisible hands at his neck. But unlike Sidious, whose Force choke had felt calm and detached, Vader was literally wringing Maul’s neck with the Force. Every ounce of his anger flowing outwards towards Maul, crushing him and squeezing the life from his throat. 

Not satisfied with simply killing him with Force energy, however, Vader also closed the gap between them and was reaching out with his own hands to strangle Maul. 

That was a mistake. As Vader came within striking distance, Maul fought the Force hold and lashed out. He was hardly thinking at this point, every move was instinct as the most animalistic part of his brain drove him to fight. Some flailing limb managed to strike Vader, the Force hold weakening as Vader was lured into the physical confrontation. Too driven by bloodlust now to make smart choices. 

For a moment their limbs tangled, Vader trying to wrap his hands around Mauls neck, while Maul attempted to strike Vader at any tactical weak point. Maul was rewarded by the distinct sound of a rib cracking under his assault. But the victory didn't last long. Vader howled in pain and redoubled his own assault on Mual. 

This time, Vader grabbed at Maul’s head and slammed it into the wall. His hand finding purchase around Maul’s cheekbone and eye socket. 

The first impact against the wall nearly knocked Maul unconscious. But unlike the last time, Maul knew that if he blacked out now he would not be waking up. 

Vader’s hand readjusted on his face, getting better leverage for the next slam that would no doubt be the last. In a final desperate effort, Maul turned his head in towards Vader’s hand, luckily this was the flesh and blood one. 

Vader did not react quickly enough to stop what happened next. Before he could smash Maul’s skull against the concrete wall, Maul managed to take one of Vader’s fingers securely between his teeth. 

This was much louder than the cracking rib. With a sickening wet snap, Maul’s teeth sheared part of Vader's finger off, forcing him to let go. The blood seemed to get everywhere in an instant. Maul could feel it dripping from his own lips as he spat out any remaining flesh from his mouth. Vader swore and clutched at his hand, the blood staining his robes and skin. The shock and pain of the moment distracted Vader briefly, giving Maul a chance to catch his breath. The Force Choke was now completely lifted. 

But before either could continue the fight, a klaxon blared loudly from nearby. Small lights in the ceiling and by the door lit up red and the speaker above them crackled to life. 

“Report to battle stations” the automated recording began to repeat. 

A dozen other reports streamed in through the room’s speakers and over Vader’s personal com.

“Hull breach port side, zones three and four. Evacuate area immediately.”

“Intruder sighted heading west through maintenance tunnels. Attempting to intercept.” 

“All officers report to the bridge.” 

“Explosion in maintenance corridor 5, corridor now blocked, use alternate route.” 

Vader seethed and glanced at Maul, clearly trying to decide if he had enough time to finish him off before dealing with this new emergency. But in the end, Vader only swore loudly, clutched his bleeding hand tighter and stormed out of the room. 

Once the door had fully closed and Maul could only just make out Vader barking orders at those around him, he let himself slip down onto the floor.He didn’t even need to reach into the Force to know who had boarded them. The Force seemed determined to keep their paths intersecting. 

Maul considered his options. He’d survived this long, but if things kept going as they were he wouldn’t be able to say that much longer. Besides, he was tired of being passive, allowing things to happen to him rather than directing his actions himself. It was obvious to Maul that there was really only one thing he could do- only one way he was ever going to get off this ship. 

Standing took a lot of effort, he couldn’t suppress the pain from his burns much longer, and now his head was swimming from being crushed against a wall. But, he buried all the pain deep down, his body was reaching its physical limits but he could push himself a little further. And a little further was hopefully as far as he would have to go. 

The chaos in the hall beyond allowed Maul to slip by without notice. Troopers and crew members brushed past him obviously, intent on capturing the intruder. 

Maul forced himself to jog back to the room where he had left his lightsaber. He had a narrow window of time to pull this off and he couldn’t waste a second, but he also wasn’t about to give up his lightsaber, not after so recently having it returned to his possession. It didn’t take long to find his way back and retrieve the blade, it was the only thing in the small room and the only thing Maul cared about anyway. 

With the hilt of his blade now securely attached to his belt, Maul was free to start his own search for the interloper. He ignored the alarms and the automated status reports that were flooding the hallways with noise. He ignored the clone troopers marching hurriedly in whatever direction their commanders were telling them to go now. Maul simply started running. Analyzing what the Force was telling him with the cognitive part of his brain was going to take too long. It was faster to simply let it flow into his subconscious, to take whatever turn or staircase felt right and know he was heading to where he needed to be. This wasn’t a Force technique Maul was normally inclined to employ. It was too unpredictable, and too very _Jedi_ for his liking. Allowing the Force to guide him sounded suspiciously like light side philosophy. But he just didn’t have the time, and whether he wanted to be guided by the Force or not didn’t really seem to matter. The Force was flowing strongly and was dragging him as much guiding him to his destination.


	12. Chapter 12

Maul wasn't surprised to find his path leading him deeper and deeper into the ship. Most of the halls he went through were for maintenance droids and the rare humanoid worker. The doors in these hallways would open to the backside of every station throughout the ship. There were a lot of things to keep running smoothly aboard a star destroyer this big, and the hallways felt practically endless. Much further and Maul was sure he would hit the heart of the starship. 

The corridor Maul found himself in was becoming progressively smaller and more tunnel like, so much so that he had to keep his back stooped as he made his way along. But eventually it emptied out into a larger area full of computer equipment. He was in one of the data processing rooms, the guts underneath every communication station on the ship. Maul cautiously walked through the dark room, sensing his way through the maze of terminals and towers. Coming around each corner slowly, lest he walk into a trap. 

But Kenobi wasn't one for tricks. When Maul rounded the final corner, he saw Obi-Wan waiting for him, lightsaber out but still unlit. And just like the last time they had laid eyes on one another, Maul felt reality bend just a little. His vision dipped red and scene appeared just like he was looking through the ray shield on Naboo again. Watching a young and very angry Obi-Wan preparing to kill him. Or at least gut him alive, which Maul had always suspected was more of a mistake than a show of self restraint on Obi-Wan's part. 

But just as quickly the memory washed away and Maul felt his own battle lust settle.

Now it was his turn to say, “I’m not going to fight you, Kenobi.”

Obi-Wan responded by flicking his blade to life. “I gave you a chance” Obi-Wan said gravely “you chose your side. You returned to your master.”

“I chose to survive,” Maul hissed, “But that strategy seems to have run its course.” 

Obi-Wan kept his face impassive, clearly suspicious of a trap or ruse, finally all he said was, “I don't trust you.”

“You shouldn’t. If I thought for a second killing you and bringing your head back would win me any favor with my master, I would.” Maul said matter of factly. 

“If that is supposed to convince me to help you, you’re not doing a very good job.” Obi-Wan said with thinly veiled contempt.

Maul snorted in response, “My point is that I'm not going to kill you and it won't earn me any favor to do so, nothing will anymore.”

“Why are you trying to...” but whatever Obi-Wan's question was, he trailed off. Maul had taken a step into the dim glow that Obi-Wan lightsaber produced. And for the first time since they began talking, Obi-Wan could see Maul clearly. 

“Oh..." Was the only sound Obi-Wan made.

Maul could feel Obi-Wan's eyes tracing over his body. Taking in the burns along his arms and the exposed parts of his torso, the bruises flowering into a dark purple ring around his neck and the large gash running down the side of his skull that had finally started to clot. Along with whatever other unaccounted for injuries Maul had sustained in the past forty-eight hours. He didn't flinch under Obi-wan’s probing gaze. 

Obi-Wan pursed his lips. Not quite an expression of pity, more like disgust. Disgust at the Sith and their order and at the cruelty they so wantonly inflicted. 

“I see...” He finally said, still wary but his tone softening ever so slightly. “Alright, Maul, I'm listening. What do you want?”

“A trade,” Maul said quickly, before he could second guess his own words. “I'll help you get whatever you came for and get you back to your ship- but you have take me with you.”

Obi-Wan looked at him with blatant shock, some of his unflappable persona slipping. It didn't seem like what he said next was something he had actually meant to say out loud. 

“You're betraying the Sith?”

Maul felt a cold chill run through his body at remark, but he managed to keep his voice steady. 

“This,” he gestured around himself in an abstract way, “This is not The Sith Empire...” He trailed off and hesitated, not used to putting such thoughts into words. “Its not what the Sith have worked countless generations for. Whatever _this_ is, its his empire. Sidious has abandoned the order for personal glory and is putting everything we worked so long for at risk. So now... I'm betraying him.”

Obi-Wan didn't look entirely convinced, but after a moment, he shook his head and deactivated his lightsaber. 

“Alright, it seems for the moment our interests overlap again. And I can't get into the computer terminal to save my life, so let's hope this is a profitable arrangement for the both of us.”

Maul nodded slightly, he could only imagine Kenobi felt just as horrified to have struck such an alliance as he did. 

Pushing Obi-Wan out of the way, Maul moved to the terminal Obi-Wan had been working on. He typed in a few lines and the screen lit up brighter, signaling access to the system. Obi-Wan looked surprised. 

"Has Palpatine not changed his security codes in over a decade?”

Maul shrugged, “Very few people were ever assigned these code, and I think Sidious assumed no one who would be stupid enough to try and betray him.” Maul said darkly. 

Kenobi only nodded, and turned back to the screen. Digging through the digital files for whatever he was after.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long break. I got kinda discouraged after the last chapter. But I'm back! and the only way is forwards.

Maul couldn't stop his breath from coming loud and ragged as he waited. There was nothing between him and the pain now. Simply staying upright was taking all his concentration and he wasn't sure how long he could even continue to stand up. As far as Maul was concerned, Kenobi was taking an insufferably long time finding the files he needed. 

“Are you almost done?” Maul finally snapped. Obi-Wan had only been sorting through the computer systems for ten minutes, but Maul was at his limit. “We don't have time for this. Eventually someone will notice that my clearance was used to access the system and it won't be hard to figure out the rest from there.”

“Hold on, hold on...” Obi-Wan said absently. “Alright, I've got it.” He removed a card from the terminal and pocketed it. “I'm ready. Now, how do we get out?”

“I should be able to clear a path for us to the hangar.” 

Obi-Wan hesitated. “I wasn't actually able to land in the hangar...” He finally said. 

“Then where exactly did you manage to land?” Maul tilted his head in confusion. 

“I think it used to be a mess hall...”

“In the mess hall...? ” Maul repeated bewildered, and then he remembered. “Hull breach in zones three and four... you can't be serious."

But Kenobi didn't look like he was joking. 

_________________________________________________________ 

Maul’s mind was racing, and his vital organs weren't doing too well either. He could feel the irregularity in his heart beats. The chill that was stealing over his extremities where they weren't getting enough blood, and the overwhelming nausea that threatened to take him at any moment. 

Even the dark side had given up on him now, there was no more mediating or channeling this pain. All that was left was the disorienting coldness that signaled the edge of his pain tolerance and the long moments before passing out. 

Maul could only manage a brisk walk, but it was enough. He rounded the next corner and saw several clone troopers marching his way.

“Didn't you hear the order!” Maul snapped at them, standing in their paths and forcing them to stop. “They have the intruder cornered on the bridge, all available units are to secure the area!”

For a moment the head trooper hesitated, but quickly came to a decision.

“Heading there now, sir.” The clone made a decisive gesture at the group behind him and they all turned and jogged off in the opposite direction. As soon as they were out of sight Maul hissed. 

“Would you hurry up, Kenobi, they'll be on to our game soon. Vader might not be that smart, but Sidious isn't stupid.” 

Obi-Wan appeared from where he had been hiding, crouched in between some abandoned storage crates. 

“I'm not the one slowing us down.” Obi-Wan gave Maul another appraising glance. The damage even more visible in the well lit halls of the ship than it had been in the dark computer maintenance room. 

“Just come on, we’re almost there.”

Around the next bend was what used to be the entrance to the ship's mess hall. Now it was sealed with it's emergency blast door and two clones were standing guard in front. Leaving Kenobi behind and out of sight again, Maul hoped that his ruse would work one more time.

“Why are you idiots still standing here! Every available trooper has been ordered to secure level ten!” 

Maul could see the clones' concern and suspicion, despite the helmets that hid their faces. Maul had no official rank on this ship, but neither did Vader. Up until now Maul had just hoped that the troopers knew better than to argue with the scary men in dark cloaks. But it looked like these two weren't as smart as the others. 

“We are not allowed to leave this post, sir.” One of the clones finally said. “Emperor's orders.”

Maul looked between the two troopers, gauging the situation, but it didn't take long for him to decide. In a fluid motion the clones didn't even realize was an attack, Maul pulled out his lightsaber and ignited both ends simultaneously. He barely had to move the hilt as the two glowing ends of the weapon extended and burned holes through the troopers' armor.

They fell over dead instantly. 

Maul could already hear Kenobi complaining. But he ignored whatever righteous indignation Kenobi was irritatingly spewing at him. Instead, he looked at the small screen attached to the blast door. According to the readings, the mess hall beyond still wasn't safe. The breach to the hull was not yet fully contained, meaning the oxygen in the room beyond was still dangerously low and the artificial gravity wasn't completely stabilized either. On the one hand that was good because it meant they could still fly the ship out the way it came in. Of course, it would be risky attempting to even reach the ship. 

“I would stop talking now.” Maul warned Kenobi, preparing to override the door locks and enter the mess hall. "And take a really deep breath.” Before Obi-Wan could object, Maul hit the button to open the doors.

But nothing happened. 

In an instant, Maul felt his stomach drop. They knew. _He_ knew. And now Maul was locked out of the system, all his clearance codes revoked. For a moment Maul was too stunned to act. Even the pounding of boots in the nearby hallways didn't startle him into action. 

His plan hadn't worked. _Like it was ever going to._ How had he _ever_ even considered crossing his master. This was the inevitable outcome. It always had been. From the moment he failed his mission on Naboo, it had just been a matter of time before his life was forfeit. The weak would always perish, only the strong could survive. Only the strong- 

"Maul! Would you hurry up and help me?!" Obi-Wan's voice cut through the mental chaos of Maul's near delirious mind. Obi-Wan already had part of the blast door cut away, but the pounding of clone boots was only getting closer. 

Maul couldn't quite focus, the world around him was getting bleary. But he did manage to assist Kenobi forcing the doors apart. And that was all he could really remember.

From there on there was a lot of noise from blasters, pinging off the ground and buzzing loudly as they were deflected by Obi-Wan's lightsaber. The rush through the mess hall was also a blur. The world already didn't feel real and the altered gravity and low oxygen only made it more bizarre. Maul was vaguely aware of Obi-Wan half pushing half dragging him up the boarding ramp of the ship. Finally, Maul felt the cold floor of Kenobi's ship embrace him as he collapsed inside. There was the sound of the engines and more blaster fire, distant and softer now as it hit the small ship's exterior. And finally, the peculiar vibration through the ship as they left real space and jumped far away.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who left kind words on the most recent chapter. It really truly means so much to me to know that you are enjoying the story as much as I am. Thank you!

Obi-Wan sat in the cramped med station of the ship. They were still in hyperspace, the computer generating random algorithms and coordinates that would send them half way round the galaxy. Of course they would run out of fuel eventually... but that was a headache for tomorrow at least.

What preoccupied Obi-Wan now was his current headache, the one floating in the bacta tank a few feet in front of him.

 

They had only just managed to escape from the _Eclipse_. It turned out that the barely contained hole into outer space was enough of a deterrent to the clone troopers pursuing them. While Obi-Wan and Maul raced haphazardly through the mostly destroyed cafeteria, the clones were happy to shoot long range at them from parts of the ship where the air was still breathable.

While the distance from the doors to the ship was only a few meters, it had been a struggle to get even that far. The blaster fire was easy enough to deflect, but the unpredictable gravity slowed them down with each step. And the low oxygen meant that their muscles were weakening quicker than they could run.

Somehow they stumbled up the boarding ramp, or at least Obi-Wan did. Maul only made it a few feet before collapsing. But they did it, somehow. Obi-Wan’s skillful piloting allowed them to dodged the close range cannons as they exited and made the jump into hyperspace.

And here they were now. Obi-Wan sitting and staring at Maul suspended in the green bacta fluid. Maul was still unconscious, which was probably for the best.

Obi-Wan couldn’t help but stare. There was so much to look at, so many hidden stories rippling across Maul’s flesh. The intricate tattoos were only the first layer, though Obi-Wan felt he could have been entranced by them alone they were so complex. However, it was what they hid that was of more interest to Obi-Wan. Interwoven within the tattoos were hundreds of scars. They laced Maul’s body, almost as complex as the tattoos were, though fainter and more subdued. Of course, Obi-Wan could easily identify the large and crude scar running across Maul’s mid section, the only remaining evidence of their fight so many years ago.

Obi-Wan wasn't quite sure what he felt when he looked at it now. That fight on Naboo seemed like a lifetime ago. He was so removed from those memories, like it was just a story someone had once told him. Simply a part of legend about some long dead Jedi he had never met. It didn't feel like it was his story anymore.

If that fight had been the first and last time Obi-Wan ever had to watch a friend die, then maybe the memories would have stayed with him. Maybe he could have continued to hate Qui-Gon’s killer for the rest of his life. But the war changed everything. Qui-Gon might have been the first, but he was by no means the last. Since that day, Obi-Wan had witnessed the genocide of entire planets. There was too much suffering in the galaxy for him to feel it all, that eventually he stopped. It was just too much to hate and too much to grieve for. So, he simply didn’t.

But none of that made looking at the angry scar any easier. Instead, Obi-Wan stood up and walked to the other side of the tank. It wasn’t much prettier. Obi-Wan had seen so many things during the Clone Wars that he wished he could forget, and the mutilated bodies of prisoners were one of them. Of course the Republic never tortured their prisoners, but the Sith controlled Confederacy had not been so just. Obi-Wan had been on enough rescue missions to be all too well familiar with the marks that torture and interrogation left. And Maul's back was like the illustrated guide.

But what truly sickened Obi-Wan was how faded the scars were, decades old at least. Whatever Maul had endured, it wasn’t from the war, he had spent most of that time locked in their Jedi prison anyway. Obi-Wan had always been taught that the Sith were cruel and heartless, but he had never even considered that their sadism would extend to their own kind.

Obi-Wan shook his head and sank back to his seat. Too much had happened. There was just too much to feel. So he didn’t, it was what the Jedi had trained him to do. But while there may not have been any emotion, there certainly wasn’t peace.

But maybe if he tried... there was some compassion.

Obi-Wan’s solemn reverie was cut short when movement in the tank caught his eye. The sedatives Maul was under should have lasted another twelve hours. But apparently no one had told _him_ that.

  
Obi-Wan quickly released the lock on the tank, allowing Maul to effortlessly open the hatch at the top and pull himself partially out of the fluid. He all but spat the tubing out of his mouth once he reached the surface.

“You shouldn’t come out yet,” Obi-Wan warned, “you’re not fully healed.”

Maul only grunted in response, heaving the rest of his body out of the tank and dropping over the edge and onto the ground.

Though Obi-Wan wouldn’t admit it, Maul did look remarkably better.

“You’re concern is touching,” Maul eventually said with disdain. “But I was fine before you put me in that tank.”

“One of your hearts had stopped beating!” Obi-Wan balked.

Maul made a dismissive gesture. “Well it's a good thing I have two.”

Obi-Wan could only shake his head in bafflement as he watched Maul stretch out his now rejuvenated limbs, as though he hadn’t been lying on the ship’s floor dying less than a day ago.

“Well..." Obi-Wan finally said, “there are clothes and some food in the cabinet.”

Maul pointedly ignored him, continuing to systematically test his muscles, checking for any permanent damage.

Not sure that there was anything left to say, Obi-Wan left the medical station. While their arrangement had never seemed like a good idea, it had seemed like a better one when they were both attempting to flee an imperial star destroyer. Now that Maul was a passenger on Obi-Wan’s ship, it all felt a lot more complicated...


	15. Chapter 15

Maul managed to salvage some of his old clothing. Articles like his belt and boots were still mostly intact, but the rest of his robes and tunic were all but shredded. Maul picked through what was available in the cabinet Obi-Wan had mentioned, clearly the clothing inside was all Jedi issue. But it was practical if nothing else. 

He kept his movements slow and steady, taking his time as he dressed. The bacta fluid had worked wonders, but it would be a mistake to over exert himself now. 

Having made his selection, Maul pulled a dark brown robe around himself, and just for a moment allowed the pleasant tactile sensation of the fabrics warmth and weight to surround him. Hope was for fools, but Maul was satisfied with the knowledge that he had survived. At least for this instant, he was safely speeding through hyperspace and not in any immediate danger. 

Pulling the robe's hood up and over his head, Maul silently hoped it would deter Obi-Wan from talking to him. 

There was a lot they needed to discus of course, but not until Maul felt fully healed. There would be time enough in the next few days of hyperspace travel to sort out exactly what their bizarre partnership was. Until then, Maul just wanted to be left alone. 

Exiting the med station and making his way to a more central part of the ship, it didn't seem he was going to get his wish. Apparently Obi-Wan still had the ship set on autopilot, and he was all but waiting for Maul in the small room of the ship where the single acceleration couch was located.

“Feeling better?” Obi-Wan said in a poor attempt at levity. 

Maul leaned against the wall and glared at Obi-Wan. 

“I'll feel better when Vader and my master are dead.” He refused to indulge Kenobi in his pointless small talk. But his bluntness only disused Obi-Wan for a moment. 

“Did you mean what you said, when we were in the computer room?” Obi-Wan said with just a hint of hesitation.

“If you recall, I was half dead at that point. I don't really remember anything I've said in the past twenty four hours.” Maul evaded effortlessly. 

“About betraying Sidious, about betraying the Sith order.” Obi-Wan prompted, but Maul only waved a hand in a dismissive gesture.

“Yes, yes. I’m sure I told you whatever you wanted to hear. I needed your ship.”

But Obi-Wan wasn't about to be brushed off that easily. 

“Well are you?” Obi-Wan insisted. 

“Am I what?” Maul said with irritation.

“Betraying the Sith?”

Finally, it was Maul's turn to hesitate. Even if he wanted to explain it all to Kenobi, he wasn't sure the Jedi would ever understand...

“You know as well as I do, Kenobi, that Sith and Jedi aren't just titles. They can't be taken off as easily as a cloak or a lightsaber...” Maul paused collecting his thoughts. “I am and will always be Sith. The dark side of the Force will not let me go that easily, it's as much a part of me as I'm a part of it.”

Obi-Wan nodded, he seemed to understand that much at least. However, he didn't seem satisfied with the answer. 

“But what about your Order? What about Sidious?”

This time Maul took a much longer pause, pointedly avoiding eye contact. Obi-Wan thought that Maul might simply refuse to respond this time. But finally he answered. 

“I already told you, Sidious betrayed the Order. Sidious used the Sith for his own personal gain. Now he controls the galaxy and the Sith Order will likely perish because of it. He will never pass on his knowledge or relinquish his rule. Vader is a fool if he thinks he is going to succeed Sidious. No, Sidious is ignoring the most basic tenants of Sith philosophy. He has to be stopped or the order will die and a thousand years of planning will be wasted.” The words tumbled out from Maul. A long disjointed stream of thoughts he had never said out loud before, and had never planned to. There was nothing about himself or his thoughts Maul would ever consider _personal_ , and there was certainly nothing in the galaxy he would go so far as to say he _cared_ about. But he couldn't deny the small catch in his words as he tried to explain to Obi-Wan where his loyalties remained. To make him understand just how important the Sith philosophies were and how devastating Sidious's betrayal was to his Order. 

“So,” Obi-Wan ventured after Maul had finished talking. “Is it safe to say we are working together for the time being? Seeing as we both have no love for the Empire.”

Maul snorted. “No. Not yet it isn’t.”

Kenobi looked confused. “What do you mean not yet?”

Maul sighed heavily, and spoke slowly like he was explain something very simple to a very stupid child.

“You have to fight me first, Kenobi.”

Obi-Wan almost laughed out lauloud, and would have if he thought it was a joke. But Maul didn't seem like the kind to tell jokes.

“I'm sorry, what?” Was all Obi-Wan came up with.

Maul gesture vaguely. “There are always two.” He said it like that would explain everything.

“I'm not a Sith lord.” Obiwan said, still baffled

Maul only shook his head dismissively.

“No, but the concept is sound. We will only waste time and energy if we exist in ambiguity like this. Everything has a natural order, and we need to establish it. You can only demand my cooperation if you deserve it.” 

“I'm pretty sure we established our order thirteen years ago.” Obi-Wan said darkly, unhappy with the turn of the conversation.

“Yes., but that fight wasn't-” Maul stopped himself before whatever pathetic excuse was about to follow. “What I mean is, that was a long time ago.”

“I hardly think a decade in prison did much for your saber skills” Obi-Wan countered.

“Then it should be easy for you.” Maul hissed. “This is the only way Kenobi. If you don't demand loyalty. I will betray you the first chance I get. It's Sith nature.”

“You do know we could just be allies?”

Maul spat. “Don't be disgusting. Next you'll be saying we should be friends. Ambiguity leads to disorder and wasted energy. You were general, you should understand. A clear chain of command is always necessary. Or are you just afraid I'll beat you?”

There was the faintest flicker of humor in Maul's words and Obi-Wan couldn't help but smile

“Hardly.”

“Good. Then you should have no objections.”

Obi-Wan glanced around unsure. “Are we having this fight now?”

This time, it was Maul's turn to laugh. “No. Not unless you insist. I, for one, would like to enjoy existing without pain for at least a few more hours.” And with that Maul allowed himself to sink down onto the floor, his back resting against the wall and his eye closed.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! Thank you for all the lovely comments, thank you for all the uplifting kudos, thank you just for clicking on this story!  
> Today is a good day! You are getting a longer chapter than usual! This is an exciting part of the story that I've been intimidated to write. But I have finally done the deed and I hope you enjoy!
> 
> As with many chapters, some violent stuff ahead. Nothing too graphic, but proceed with caution!

Maul woke with a start. He was still slumped against the wall across from the now empty acceleration couch. He cursed himself for falling asleep like that in enemy territory.

 _Enemy territory._ That didn’t sound quite right... last week it would have. The only way he could have been on a Jedi ship would have been as a prisoner. But Kenobi was hardly his captor and this ship a far cry from a prison. In fact, this ship was perhaps the only place left that _wasn’t_ enemy territory, now that the Empire controlled most of the galaxy anyway. They certainly weren’t _safe,_ but in Maul’s experience, safety had always seemed more like a concept than a reality.

Maul stood up, the bacta fluid had done a lot of the work for him, but he could still feel almost all his energy being siphoned away to muscles and tendons that were not done healing. He felt warm from all the blood being pumped through his veins and a little groggy from how relaxed his whole body had become. But that was nothing but a mildly inconvenient after effect of intense bacta treatment.

With all his mental strength, Maul pushed away the haze. He banished the fogginess from his mind and the fuzziness in limbs. He felt his body coiling back in on itself, now only finely controlled tension rippled through him. He was ready to fight.

Strong swift steps brought him into the cockpit area of the ship, only a few yards and doorway from where he had been sleeping.

“Sleep well?” Obi-Wan didn’t even look over his shoulder when Maul entered, though his eyes flickered to Maul’s reflection in the viewport. Behind his reflection was the endless tunnel of hyperspace.

Maul only continued to stand, expectantly. Obi-Wan sighed.

“Are we really doing this now?”

“You’re running out of fuel.” Maul gestured to the gauge. “We will have to drop out of hyperspace soon. So, yes. Now would be the time.”

“Alright,” Obi-Wan conceded reluctantly. “But we’re not using sabers. I used almost all the bacta fluid this ship’s med station had on you the first time. Any bumps and bruises from here on out you’re just going to have to put thermal compresses on.”

Maul nodded his agreement. Hand to hand it would be then.   

____________________________________________

The only place on the ship even remotely large enough for a duel was the cargo hold. But before their fight could even begin, they had to move all the crates and storage containers out of the way. And by the time that was done, they were both already a little out of breathe.

“I know this is going to fall on deaf ears, but we really _don’t_ have to do this.” Obi-Wan said again, taking a break to rest against a crate. This fight was already more exhausting than he wanted and it hadn’t even started yet.  

“If you want to spend the rest of our time together wondering when I will slit your throat in your sleep, than by all means let’s just forget it.” Maul hissed, moving the crates around had used up his very limited patience.

“I’m going to worry about that anyway, so I still really don’t know why we are doing this.” Obi-Wan couldn’t quite control the irritation in his voice. He was surprised, however, when Maul’s response didn’t come back as an equally petulant quip.

“If you defeat me, you will never have to worry about me betraying you.” The solemnity of his words brought a heavy end to the conversation- but only until he added. “Until you get old and weak, that is. Then I’ll just do you the courtesy of ending your pathetic life.”  

“How thoughtful of you...” Obi-Wan said dryly shoving a final crate to the side. “Let’s get this over with.”

Taking up positions on opposites sides of the hold, they turned to face one another. Both had stripped down to minimal clothing and no shoes. No one needed sleeves or sashes getting in the way during the fight. They both crouched slightly into fighting stances, and started to feel with the Force.  

“Last chance to just be friends,” Obi-Wan shouted from across the room, showing just a spark of his typical combat banter.  

“You will have my service through force or not at all, Kenobi.” Maul spat back, though with just a flash of his rare crazed smile.

It wasn’t clear who made the first move, neither was willing to play on the defensive. So instead, they met in a violent clash almost instantly. Despite the lack of lightsabers, this fight was as intrinsically meshed with the Force as any saber duel. Each opponent could feel the Force rushing through their limbs, turning hands and feet into deadly weapons.

For the first few moments, Maul actually thought he might have the upperhand. Kenobi’s punches and kicks were so refined and elegant, that Maul was sure his own more vicious and crude tactics would see him to victory. But that was not the case.

Kenobi almost felt _untouchable._ For every wild strike and push Maul threw at him, Obi-Wan seemed to evade effortlessly. It was the frustration, if nothing else, that was getting to Maul. This fight felt infuriatingly like try to punch the wind. But for all the effort Maul was wasting with his assault, Obi-Wan was under equal strain. Just like in a saber duel, he had to draw on every ounce of his precognition. Fully entrusting himself to the Force as he moved without thinking. And should his focus falter, he would step right into one of Maul’s deadly blow.

Maul, on the other hand, didn’t even bother to avoid Obi-Wan’s attacks. A little pain went a long way for a dark side user. With each successful hit Obi-Wan landed, Maul only felt more in tune with the Force.

Maul went in for another vicious blow, Obi-Wan’s ribs were his intended mark. And this time, Obi-Wan did falter. The hit was only glancing, Obi-Wan spun with the strike and out of harm's way, but the connection had been solid. Breaking Obi-Wan’s serenity had been key, and Maul wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip by. He rushed Obi-Wan, ready to knee him in the gut and then strike down against his head with an elbow, a combination that if executed correctly could shatter his spine.

But he never got that close. A wave of Force energy blasted outwards with Obi-Wan at its epicenter. Maul barely had his own Force shield up in time to take the brunt of the assault. Surprised and on the defensive, Maul wasn’t able to stop what happened next.

With deadly accuracy Obi-Wan struck him, one hit to his solar plexus followed by a downward kick to his knee. Maul knew he was going down, but he was determined to take Obi-Wan with him. Giving up on balance all together, Maul desperately swung his legs out and under Obi-Wan’s, tangling them together. It wasn’t a sophisticated move, but it was one Kenobi hadn’t seen coming. They toppled together into an undignified mess of flailing limbs.

Despite Obi-Wan’s successful strike, Maul felt more confident than before. These frantic animalistic moments of battle on the floor were practically his specialty, since he seemed to end up in this position more often than not. It was with almost practiced ease, that Maul was the first to disentangle himself. He wasted no time trying to force Kenobi harder into the floor, he reached for any limb he could bend as leverage. For a few moments, Maul had the advantage. He had a knee in the small of Obi-Wan’s back and one of his arms bent unnaturally behind him. But with a thrash of movement, Obi-Wan dislodged Maul and reversed their positions. Maul forced onto his back and Obi-Wan on top of him.

It wasn’t just Obi-Wan that had Maul pinned down, it was every drop of the Force Obi-Wan could call upon. While Kenobi’s full weight was bearing down onto Maul’s rib cage, he also felt his limbs heavy like they were shackled with weights. That he could tell was the Force. And while he could struggle against the feeling of heaviness, there was nothing he could do as his lungs refused to fill with air under the pressure Kenobi was applying with his knee.

As his desperation mounted, Maul broke the Force hold on his arms, reached up and tried to strangle Obi-Wan. Maul only had grip for a second before Obi-Wan tore his hands away and forced them down above his head.

Maul was well and truly pinned now. Obi-Wan leant his full weight into the knee that crushed Maul’s chest and leaned over him to continue holding his arms down. From this position, their faces hovered only a few inches away from each other.

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Obi-Wan said breathlessly, maintaining his dominance but not moving in for any kind of final move. “Do you surrender?”

Maul’s only response was to spit in Kenobi’s face, and to Maul’s satisfaction and Obi-Wan’s shame, the goad worked.

Incensed, Kenobi briefly released his hold on Maul’s hand and struck him across the face. Maul writhed and retaliated against Obi-Wan, but kicks couldn’t reach him and every movement only forced more air out of his collapsing chest.

Only the knowledge that Maul would kill him if he let go, kept Obi-Wan hanging on. He was disgusted with himself, with what he was doing. Kenobi couldn’t stop his own shivers of revulsion as he felt Maul’s body spasm underneath his own. He wanted to end it. With his last remaining will, Kenobi forced his knee in deeper and drove the last breath out of Maul. Finally, Maul’s muscles went slack, the writhing stopped. But Obi-wan couldn’t even look at Maul’s face, he was pretty sure it was smiling.

Obi-Wan rolled off of Maul, it certainly didn’t feel like he had won. He could hear Maul shifting next to him, not dead then. That did a little to assuage his guilt, but not much.

Maul coughed, a hacking wet sound.   

“Good job,” Maul’s voice was hoarse, but pleased, “Very good job, _Master Jedi._ ”

Obi-Wan felt an overwhelming wave of sickness at Maul’s words.      


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back everyone!  
> Thank you for your continued support!  
> It means the world to me <3 
> 
> Slow chapter this week as we see the fall out from the fight and start to set the stage for more action!

Maul stretched as he picked himself up from the hold’s floor. Obi-Wan had left without a word, his unease and discomfort practically radiating in the Force around him.  

While Maul was unhappy to have been bested by Kenobi, he couldn’t say he was really all that surprised. In fact, the results of the fight had left him rather pleased.

At the start of the fight, Maul had felt no trace of the young Jedi he had once fought on Naboo. There was none of the impulse, none of the anger that had made Kenobi so intriguing to him. But once their fight had made it to the floor, Maul could feel all of Obi-Wan’s suppressed anger starting to resurface. It was a subtle shift, one that Kenobi himself might not have even truly felt. But Maul was very well attuned to the dark side, and by the end of the fight Kenobi’s alignment in the Force had taken an undeniable dip.

But crushing the life out of another living creature had a tendency to do that to you.

Despite that, Maul was sure the next time he saw Kenobi he would only radiate the same air of cool detached loftiness all Jedi seemed to project. But this fight had shown Maul what he truly needed to see, the thin cracks in Obi-Wan’s otherwise flawless persona.

Maul had not misjudged him, Obi-Wan Kenobi was a force to be reckoned with. And what lay beneath his shining Jedi facade might be even more deadly...               

 

_____________________________

 

Obi-Wan stared bleakly into the vortex of hyperspace. He was alone in the cockpit, overseeing their flight. Which mostly just entailed watching the fuel gauge drop lower and lower with every passing minute.    

It had been several hours since the fight in the cargo hold. Obi-Wan was now washed and redressed and trying desperately to push memories of the fight from his mind. However, he could not shake the feeling that he had been played somehow. He had won the fight, yes, but at what cost? Even in the darkest hours of the Clone Wars he never would have done what he just did. Forcing the life out of an opponent so clearly already beaten. One of the most basic Jedi philosophies was mercy, and having Maul so utterly at his and showing him none had... well it wasn't the Jedi way.

Obi-Wan’s skin crawled as his mind replayed the sensation on repeat. The desperate writhing and squirming of Maul’s flesh against his own and then the moment it all went still, somehow even worse.  

Obi-Wan's feeling of self disgust was the only thing he could take any small solace in. He would be lying if he said he hadn't imagined just such a situation many nights following Qui-Gon's death. Obi-Wan had all but fantasized about crushing the life out of the Sith murderer while he begged for mercy. But in those dark dreams, he had always imagined he would feel some triumph, some sick pleasure as he held his opponent down and watched his death throes.

But there was no satisfaction in this, no pleasure or triumph. Just a sickening feeling of guilt and self loathing. He never should have allowed himself to be talked into the fight, should never have allowed Maul to goad him into attacking out of anger. And now Obi-Wan was inexorably caught up in Maul’s bizarre Sith philosophies about dominance and cruelty. He had allowed Maul to take him down this path, and now that he knew what he was capable of, there was no going back.

 

 

At some point Maul entered the cockpit and sat casually in the auxiliary seat. Obi-Wan had expected Maul to act sullen after his defeat, angry even. And while Maul didn't appear to be in a good mood, Obi-Wan seriously doubted that was even possible, he seemed no more irritable than before. If anything, he appeared more relaxed. Putting his feet unhelpfully onto the control panels and leaning back in the chair, some kind of rations bar in his hand partially eaten.

They sat together in silence for a few moments. Maul appraising their fuel gauge and casting an expectant look at Kenobi.

“I hope you have some idea where we are landing,” Maul finally said when Obi-Wan refused to meet his look. “And some kind of plan once we get there.”

Obi-Wan forced a little humor into his voice, though it didn't make it to his face.  

“Oh you know,” he waved a tired hand. “I suppose the plan is to fight Anakin and defeat the Empire.” It was supposed to be a joke, but the words came out tired and sad. Obi-Wan stopped himself before his emotions betrayed him. It was only decades of Jedi training that stopped the catch in his words.

“Don't be stupid.” Maul scoffed, either unaware of Obi-Wan’s distress or simply ignoring it. Then in a more serious tone added, “Do you know why the Sith were able to defeat you?”

Obi-Wan sighed deeply. Instead of waiting for whatever insults Maul was going to assail him with, he preemptively said, “Because the Council was so blinded by self righteousness we couldn't even see the corruption within our own Republic?”

Maul paused, taken aback by Obi-Wan's genuine answer.

“Well, I mean, yes.” Maul almost laughed. “But that's not actually what I was going to say.” Maul leaned back further in his chair, directing his gaze away from Obi-Wan and out of the viewport. “The Sith grand plan worked because individual Sith put aside personal glory. Each one in the legacy knew they would not be the one to rule. But they dedicated their lives to paving the way for the next one who might. That's how we amassed power and passed down our strength through over a century.”

Now Maul directed his gaze back at Obi-Wan who reluctantly met it.

“You can't be the hero Obi-Wan. If you want the Jedi to survive you must operate from the shadows. Just like the Sith. Your numbers must be few. You have to be patient and gain power in secret. You need to build a legacy.”

Whatever emotion slipped across Obi-Wan’s face, Maul couldn't read and Obi-Wan was quick to banish it.

“What?” Maul asked with suspicion. “What aren't you telling me, Kenobi?”

Obi-Wan refused to look at him now, directing his gaze back to the viewport and fiddling absently with near by controls.

“Spit it out, Kenobi,” Maul snapped irritably. “Who am I going to betray you to? You can jettison me into space if you change your mind.”

Finally, Obi Wan turned back to him. His face was grave, but his eyes were just a little bit softer than before. When he spoke, it was little more than a whisper

“There already is a legacy.”


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello hello all! Sorry for the prolonged absence! My life got a little hectic and this chapter has been sitting unedited in a document long enough!
> 
> Next chapter Maul and Obi-Wan will finally be planetside and in for a whole new adventure, so stay tuned. 
> 
> Thank again for reading and leaving such lovely comments, it means the world to me.

The ship was now dangerously low on fuel. Whether they liked it or not, these were going to be the last few hours of hyperspace travel. Their last moments of safety before they dropped back into real space. Begrudgingly, Obi-Wan had finally entered their destination into the nav computer. After that, all he could do was sit back and let the ship take it from there. 

Glancing over, Obi-Wan suspected that Maul had fallen asleep again. He was still reclined in the auxiliary chair with his feet on the dashboard. His body completely still save for the slow rise and fall of his chest. The sedatives from early were supposed to have knocked Maul out for several days. Obi-Wan wasn't  surprised that despite Maul’s best effort, he couldn't completely fight them off. 

Obi-Wan closed his own eyes briefly, letting the Force describe his world. It was all a little bit... darker. As Obi-Wan stretched his consciousness out into the galaxy it all just felt so... cold. The Jedi temple had always been like a warm beacon in the Force. Something he could always feel no matter how far he had traveled. Glowing warm and bright, leading every Jedi back home no matter how far they strayed. Without it he felt adrift. Nothing to anchor him in the vastness of the galaxy. Nowhere to go back to.

Obi-Wan continued to search, drawn to any other specs of light still burning. He imagined he could feel Yoda somewhere very distant... But Yoda was certainly suppressing his Force signature. If Obi-Wan could have sensed him this easily, so would the Emperor... 

Obi-Wan turned away from the feeling, it was better if he didn't know. 

Instinctively he felt for Anakin. The only other light that had ever rivaled the temple in Obi-Wan’s psychic landscape. But he quickly retracted that search. Anakin’s force signature was almost unrecognizable now. From this sort of distance across the galaxy, even an adept force user wouldn't be able to pick up on the faint traces of Anakin's old presence. Obi-Wan thought he could still sense them, the lingering essence of his padawan... or maybe he was just imagining that some trace remained. 

The presence of Darth Vader was so large in the Force it took all of Obi-Wan’s concentration to block it out. Vader and Sidious were like the epicenter of an enormous darkside explosion. Obi-Wan could practically see the shock waves still echoing through the universe, touching everything. 

Obi-Wan shrunk back from the universe at large. It had felt like the darkness was drowning him, threatening to take him completely if he stayed too long. There was nothing to see out there, nothing that gave him any hope. Obi-Wan hesitated, he didn't dare look into the future. He didn't want to see what the Force might show him. 

Instead, Obi-Wan let his Force senses  move through the ship. Feeling the small bubble of lightside energy he had created in the darkening galaxy. Eventually, he drifted his thoughts to Maul. 

In response Mual shifted a little. His body was completely asleep, but his mind was well trained and his defenses alerted him to Obi-Wan’s cautious mental probe. But when Obi-Wan didn't push any further, Maul's unconscious defenses dropped just a little. There was not going to be any exploration of Maul's thoughts or deeper Force profile. But Obi-Wan was content to lightly skim the surface. To simply take in the faint radiation Maul put out into the Force just by existing. 

Obi-Wan wasn't surprised to feel the darkside like an aura around him. Though it felt different than Obi-Wan  had been expecting. There was none of the greed and ambition so commonly associated with darkside users. There was anger, of course, and desperation. But a surprising amount of stability, control and focus. Words he would never have associated with the darkside.  He couldn't help but feel a little deeper, curious despite himself to know more about Maul's darkside persona. 

Obi-Wan was taken by surprise when he felt the telltale sign of his own presence being examined in the Force. His eyes snapped open, locking with Maul's as they did. 

“Find anything interesting?” Maul asked drly. 

“Nothing you didn't want to show me.” Obi-Wan responded, his statement not untrue. He had only felt what any Force user would have sensed. Only what Maul allowed to be projected. 

“What about you?” Obi-Wan asked Maul cautiously.

Mual only shrugged.

“Didn't get a good look. But it was pretty boring.” 

Obi-Wan shifted uncomfortably, rotating himself back forwards so he was only staring out into hyperspace. After a moment's hesitation Obi-Wan said, “You don't feel the same as you did... the first time.”

“You do.” Maul responded simply. “You try so hard to suppress it, but it's still there.” Maul caught Obi-Wan’s glance. “And I don't need to look at you in the Force to see that.”   

Unnerved and irritated despite himself, Obi-Wan abruptly changed the subject. 

“We’re about to drop out of hyperspace. And if you’re going to keep sitting in that chair, you’re going to help fly this thing.” Obi-Wan waved his hand briskly and shoved Maul’s feet off the dash with a small Force push. 

They locked eyes briefly, before Maul looked away and to his controls. Sliding the seat’s safety restraints over his body decisively. 

“Alright,” Obi-Wan said pleasantly suprised. “Dropping out of hyperspace in five... four...”

For the first time Maul looked over to the navigation computer to read their coordinates.

“Three... Two...”

“Not this dust ball again...” Maul sighed.

“One!” 


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for you comments and Kudos!  
> Please enjoy the new chapter!

The small ship broke through Tatooine’s lower atmosphere moments later. Thick dusty clouds obscured their vision, the world outside the viewport an opaque expanse of sandy haze. Winds buffeted the outside of the ship, carrying with it debris that scratched and pinged off the hull. Obi-Wan’s brow furrowed as he leaned closer to the controls, flying in this mess wouldn’t be easy.   

“Environmental scanners warn of a sandstorm.” Maul said sarcastically, reaching over to turn off the thin whine of the scanner’s alarm function. Obi-Wan shot him a scathing look.

“I’m going to need less commentary, and more navigating.”

Maul opened his mouth like he was about to argue, but whatever he was about to say was cut short when Obi-Wan violently banked the ship, only just avoiding a large piece of airborne debris. Even with the quick dodge, there was a loud scraping as the rough stone ground and scratched the top of the ship.

“You were saying?” Obi-Wan shot Maul another stern glance, not looking away from his controls for more than a second as the gale force winds continued to rock the ship.   

Maul considered his options for a moment, and then decided to look at the readouts instead. “Topographical read indicates we are heading towards mountainous terrain with deep canyons. That’s going to be impossible to fly through in this storm. We’ll have to go around.”

“No, that’s exactly where we are headed.” Obi-Wan spun the ship expertly, trying to roll with the winds. “I can get us there, but I need you on the scanner. You’ll have to be my eyes.”

Maul wanted to object, to inform Kenobi what a horrible plan that was. But there wasn’t really any other option at this point. They were about to enter the mountain range, and Maul could either try to keep them both alive or spend their last moments in the air arguing. Gritting his teeth, Maul tapped a few controls and pulled down another monitor from overhead.

“We’re coming up on the first mountain pass in ten klicks- adjust twelve degrees east.” Maul spoke efficiently, falling back on whatever training he had. Though Obi-Wan suspected he wasn’t used to being a co-pilot.  

Obi-Wan fluidly corrected the ship, moments later the thin outlines of mountain peaks passed them by, almost invisible in the storm. Once through the pass, Obi-Wan dropped their altitude, descending into the valley below.

Maul continued to study his readouts. In the cabin proximity alerts started buzzing, the valley was dotted with rocky outcroppings and crags that almost brushed the edges of the ship as they flew by.

“Drop two and a half klicks and re-center- you’re drifting.” Maul’s voice betrayed his urgency, luckily Obi-Wan’s response was immediate. The proximity alarm wailed a little louder as whatever rock formation they had just avoided grazed along the top of their ship.

They continued this way for several more long minutes. The rocky formation were growing more dense and the storm was not letting up. As they continued to fly blind, Maul could barely get out his directions in time, falling into shorthand and hoping Obi-Wan would understand.

“Drop!” Maul snapped, hardly having time to process the data from his scanner before relaying the orders to Obi-Wan. The ship had barely begun to dip when Maul said, “Hard bank, port.” Obi-Wan titled the ship, narrowly avoiding a jagged outcropping of rock.

Maul’s relay of information was only coming quicker as they ventured deeper into the valley  and Obi-Wan couldn’t help as his mind reached out to Maul’s. When he flew with Anakin they had been practically linked. Even from different ships, sometimes their coms were almost silent, they knew each other’s flying and fighting style so well. He didn’t have that with Maul. They were having good luck so far, but it was only a matter of time before Obi-Wan swung too far or dipped too deep and they smashed into the planet's unforgiving surface.      

  Obi-Wan’s reach was rebuffed immediately.

“Maul!” Obi-Wan snapped, but Maul ignored and spoke over him.

“We’re in the canyon now, but the pass ahead is narrow-” He didn't get to fishing his sentence as the ship skimmed too close to the ground, dragging the underside of the ship along the rough terrain. “Up- up!” Maul shouted angrily over the noise, though Obi-Wan had already started their ascent.  

“We need to do this together!” Obi-Wan said the words and they tasted all too familiar. Maul’s irritated eye-roll was more or the less the same response Obi-Wan always seemed to get. But as more winds buffeted the ships, bringing with it a hail of debris, Maul acquiesced.   

“Fine!” He shot back at Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan could sense the Force around Maul shift, like it had been depressurized. Cautiously, Obi-Wan reached out again.

The link was tenuous... but it was better than nothing. As they continued their dangerous flight deeper and deeper into the canyons in between the mountains, their fragile Force bond gave Obi-Wan just enough extra information to keep them alive. Maul continued to bark out quick verbal instructions, but the Force connection alerted Obi-Wan a fraction of second before Maul had actually formed the words. It gave the impression of _how_ hard a hard turn needed to be or how far down a drop needed to go. All things Maul didn’t have time to articulate to Obi-Wan as they proceed on their dangerous flight.

They were both more than preoccupied with their jobs, the little ship was holding up well, though it would only take one miscalculation to bring her down. But the open link between them was... distracting.

More than navigational advice slipped through. Maul could sense Obi-Wan’s intense concentration, somehow more than just what it took to focus on even this difficult flying. Obi-Wan wasn’t just blocking out the noise, the visual distractions... he was blocking out the planet. Blocking whatever energies Tatooine gave off in the Force... Blocking out all the memories it brought with it. But those feelings slipped by, replaced with Kenobi’s irritating calm and general light side energies that gave Maul a headache.

“We need to go deep into this canyon.” Obi-Wan remarked as they began their descent. They were already several kilometers below ground by now, though it felt deeper with the mountains surrounding them. “We’re almost there.”

What exactly waiting for them ‘there’, Obi-Wan still hadn’t divulged. But if it meant a safe place to land the ship Maul couldn’t argue.

“Alright,” Maul grumbled, “five more klicks then you’ll be safe to start descent.”

But as the ship lowered itself deeper and deeper into Tatooine's surface, Maul notice his scanners failing... Maybe there was something in the rocks that was causing the interference, maybe they were just too close the the planet's core, maybe there was just so much sand in the ship's wiring the scanner had simply broken. Whatever the cause, the deeper they dove, the less instruments worked.

“Kenobi...” Maul hesitated.

“I see it.” Obi-Wan had also noticed some of his readouts and holos flicker away to nothing.

“I have a bad feeling about this...”   


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I say they were going to make it to the planets surface two chapters ago? Well they actually (spoilers) made it this time, haha.   
> Enjoy!

They had a few more klicks of clear flight according to the last scan that came through before it all went dark. After that it was impossible to tell, the storm was just as dense in the canyon as it had been above ground. Obi-Wan continued his cautious descent into the ravine, without the scanners there was no way to even tell which way was up. 

Maul swore loudly as he watched the last working display blink out completely. They were flying completely blind now. Maul angrily flipped a couple switches and smashed a few buttons- but to no avail. Maul’s temper flared and he slammed both his fists onto the dash, which made a satisfying cracking noise.     

Obi-Wan almost chided him out of habit. Years of Anakin and then Ahsoka had made it second nature. But Obi-Wan suspected telling Maul to be mindful of his anger wouldn’t go over well. Besides, Obi-Wan couldn’t spare any of his focus. All of his Force abilities were being channelled into keeping them in the air. Doing as much of the work as either of the engines.  But the winds were picking up again and the canyon only helped to funnel them into greater gusts. It would take more than Obi-Wan’s determination to keep them from crashing.  

“We have to land!” Maul shouted over the almost deafening winds. 

“No, we’re almost there.” Obi-Wan shouted back in a tone that brooked no further argument- which didn’t stop Maul at all. 

“If we don’t try to land this ship now, we are going to crash! All the scanners are dead, this is suicide, Kenobi!” Maul could feel his energy slipping from anger into fear and he knew his voice betrayed his desperation. So it only irritated Maul more when he felt Kenobi’s energy, serene as ever.       

“We may not be able to see with our eyes, but-” Kenobi began calmly and was promptly cut off by Maul.

“You are not serious!” Maul snapped. “Don’t you dare say the Force!” 

“I told you, you have to be my eyes! It’s the only way now.”  Obi-Wan’s persona was impossibly Jedi, no agitation or fear. Even in the heart of this violent sandstorm, Obi-Wan was the stillness in the center of it all. Maul hated it. Obi-Wan seemed perfectly content to wait for Maul to come around. He hadn’t raised his voice or issued any threats, which only infuriated Maul further.

But Maul didn't have time to debate Obi-Wan anymore. With a snarl of frustration and gritted teeth, Maul slammed his hands onto the dash and closed his eyes. 

Obi-Wan might be the calm in the storm, but Maul was not.  

The Force waves Maul sent out were violent. Dark energy rolled off him and through the Force. Obi-Wan could feel the interior of the ship growing colder and the shadows getting deeper. The air becoming brittle and thin as dark side energy infected the cabin. 

“Maul...” Obi-Wan said cautiously, hesitant to interrupt the trance Maul was forcing himself into, but he was in desperate need to directions. The clear space they had been flying in had finally run out. 

Maul grunted in response. 

“Drop...” Maul said. 

Obi-Wan slipped lower in altitude, but within a second the ship was scraping violently against rocky ground. Obi-Wan reacted immediately and brought them back up. 

“Maul!” Obi-Wan snapped, his serenity slipping slightly, they couldn’t endure another hit like that. 

“Hold on, hold on!” Maul gritted his teeth, forcing his own will out into the storm. Fighting it, trying to dominate it. He channeled all his own swirling emotions outwards, just as violent and chaotic as the storm. 

There was a heavy moment inside the ship, it was only a second but it felt like an eternity to Obi-Wan. 

“Drop!” Maul said, a new certainty in his voice. 

Obi-Wan didn’t hesitate. 

It felt like they were falling forever, it was impossible to tell how far they were descending. The opaque haze out the viewport didn’t change, only the controls of the ship were there to indicate that they were even heading downwards.

“Stop!” Maul snapped and Obi-Wan instantly leveled out the ship.

Obi-Wan exhaled in relief, it was working. 

“Bank starboard... and... drop.” They descended again, flying deeper and deeper into the canyon. 

Maul didn’t open his eyes as they continued to fly, so he wasn’t able to see the quick smile that flickered across Obi-Wan’s face. 

_________________________

The rest of their descent happened without incident. Maul and Obi-Wan had fallen into a rhythm as they flew, more graceful even then when the scanners had been working. Finally, they reached the lowest level of the canyon. The relief was palpable when the landing struts found solid ground once more.        

As the ship's engines finally quieted, both Obi-Wan and Maul released their intense Force projections. It felt like the air rushed back into the cockpit and then they both took what felt like their first breath in hours. Obi-Wan chuckled slightly, the faint feeling of giddiness rushing over him. He was genuinely surprised to be alive.   

Maul was less amused. He ran a hand over his nose and mouth, both came away streaked with blood. Nothing serious, but at some point the intense stress had caused the blood vessels near the surface to rupture. He spit a glob of blood and bile onto the ship’s floor and enjoyed the disgusted look Obi-Wan shot him. 

“Two weeks.” Maul said after they had been silent for a while. 

“Excuse me?” Obi-Wan said confused.

“With the supplies we have on board, and if you’re any decent at hunting, we can maybe survive two weeks out here. Another couple days if one of us dies and has any meat left on our bone-”

Obi-Wan interrupted that train of thought before it went any further. 

“We’re not pitching camp here. We are waiting for my contact, they’ll take us to where we have a small safe house set up.”

Maul didn’t ask who Obi-Wan meant by “we”, and figured he would find out soon enough. 

“Did we have to meet your contact in the depths of Tatooine's blasted crust?” Maul couldn’t muster the venom in his words, he just sounded tired now. 

Obi-Wan shrugged. “It’s almost impossible that anyone was able to follow us. We can leave the ship here, and it’s unlikely anyone will find it before the sands swallow it whole. It was a security measure.”

Maul could at least appreciate that.            

“I’d settle in.” Obi-Wan suggested. “It might be a full rotation before my contact checks this location again.” 


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! Welcome back, and as always- please enjoy!

 

Maul did not settle in. Sitting in the co-pilot's chair had been a mistake from the beginning, and he was all too eager to leave it. Part of him wished he  _ had  _ stayed unconscious in the bacta tank. He could have died peacefully in his sleep while Kenobi piloted them to their deaths. But somehow, they had survived-  _ again.  _ Maul couldn’t even imagine what bizarre game the Force was playing with their lives, but Maul was sure that he didn’t like it. Surely Kenobi would only see benevolence, as light side users were wont to do. Maul’s gratitude, however, was not so easily won. 

The Jedi had denied him death once already. Rather than letting him fall in battle, the Jedi had kept him alive and imprisoned him, a much more dishonorable fate. And now Maul had survived once again. He couldn’t really imagine what destiny awaited him on the backwater planet of Tatooine, but the prospect seemed dull, to say the least. 

Of course, what he had  _ ever _ imagined his destiny to be was a rather large question he preferred to avoid thinking about. He supposed at some long ago point in time he had anticipated surpassing his master and ultimately taking an apprentice of his own. Though, if he was being honest with himself, he had always been  _ uncomfortable  _ with that last bit. He couldn’t really imagine training an apprentice, it seemed like a lot of hassle, and Maul was convinced he wouldn’t be very good at it.

But that was a problem from another life. The problem he was faced with at the moment was surviving on Tatooine's unforgiving surface for the foreseeable future. And despite Kenobi’s promise of contacts and safe houses, that did little to assuage Maul of concern for their survival. 

Pulling back any stray thoughts that were still pondering the future or recollecting the past, Maul focused in on the present. He had been left on worse worlds, though Tatooine was in the top five, and survived.                

Maul moved through the small ship, opening every cabinet and storage compartment, and systematically dumping all the content into the cramped living space where the acceleration couch sat.

After about the fifth time Maul dropped a lot of heavy equipment into the growing pile with a loud crash, Obi-Wan looked over his shoulder from the cockpit. He was clearly broken from a meditation and irritated because of it. 

“What exactly are you doing?” Kenobi said with barely contained annoyance. 

Maul didn’t respond immediately, he was preoccupied sorting some bits of tech from one pile into a larger pile next to it.

“How much can you carry?” Maul asked without looking up. 

“What?” Obi-Wan's annoyance was no longer contained. 

“In a pack. How much can you carry? If we’re abandoning the ship we need to salvage as much as we can.” Maul continued to methodically go through the supplies on the floor.

“I don’t know,” Obi-Wan sounded exasperated, “Maybe ninety-five pounds?” 

Maul grunted but held back on any biting commentary.

“Alright.” Maul decisively pushed a pile away from himself, it was mostly made up of ration packs but also included what looked like an old vibroknife, basic tools and fair amount of mechanical parts that could be the beginning of a small vaporator. “That will be yours.” 

“How generous.” Obi-wan said sardonically. 

Maul ignored him and starting making his own pile, one which he made sure was visibly larger than Obi-Wan’s. 

Obi-Wan sighed, knowing he wouldn’t be able to return to his meditation. Instead he reached into the pocket of his robe and felt the small data card filled with the stolen information from the  _ Eclipse.  _ He hadn’t looked at it yet, and he wondered when his next chance would be. He cast a quick glance back to Maul again, who was continuing to ignore him but was certainly wasn’t oblivious. Inwardly Obi-Wan resigned himself, like it or not whatever their partnership was, it was going to require transparency.

Decisively, Obi-Wan plugged in the small chip and watched the holocamera project a glowing document into the space above it. At first all it showed was running streams of binary code and a few other paragraphs clearly in cipher. But eventually, it became a long scrolling list of names. By now Maul had noticed and had entered the cockpit to look over Obi-Wan’s shoulder.

“Are these the imperial secrets you risked life and limb to steal?” Maul’s eyes scanned the running list of names and then he scoffed. “Not really worth it, if you ask me. I could have told you this much.”

But Obi-Wan couldn’t hear him. As each name scrolled by Obi-Wan felt his stomach tighten. With every name emblazoned in red, Obi-Wan felt flashes of their deaths in the Force. At the time of the purge, all the death had blended together into one agonizing pain. But now, his mind pulled out each unique sensation. What it felt like when each and everyone of his oldest friends and mentors were cut down.

One name in green flickered by on it way down, his own. Every so often, in a lighter red, a name with an amendment would float by. Assumed dead- no body found. 

A break in the list as it reached the end, and then the next list started. Obi-Wan felt a new wave of sickness. He didn’t recognize all of these names, but he could still feel the echoes of their deaths all around him. 

Maul narrowed his eyes as he scanned the list, also unsure to whom these names belonged. 

“Are these...” But Maul stopped when a familiar name did slide by. 

_ Tano, Ahsoka. Presumed dead. Lightsabers recovered. No body. Last known location: Mandalore.  _

Obi-Wan ran a hand across his face, like rubbing his eyes could physically hold back any tears. He hadn’t seen Ahsoka in years, she had left the temple after the bombing. But that didn’t lessen the heartbreak he felt now seeing her name pass by. Obi-Wan didn’t trust his senses right now, but he couldn’t pinpoint Ahsoka’s death in the Force. But most likely, he just didn’t want to. 

The list was nearing its end. Maybe Maul was right, maybe this list hadn’t been worth the risk. It only confirmed what anyone could have told him. All the Jedi were dead.

He was about to take the chip out when a name in green appeared. Obi-Wan squinted to make it out.  _ Dume, Caleb. No confirmation of death. Last known location: Kaller.  _

Obi-Wan thought hard to remember the padawan, Master Billaba’s apprentice... but he couldn’t recall much more than a blurry face and a vague impression. But still, this was what he had been hoping against hope to find. Any shred of evidence that another Jedi may have survived the purge.The faintest flicker of hope in a very dark galaxy.

The list had stopped moving, but Obi-Wan continued to stare at the name lit up in green for just a moment longer. 


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello Hello
> 
> I had a very boring class today so I got some of this done- enjoy!

The list had reached the end. Obi-Wan had not held out much hope, but he had needed to see it with his own eyes. It was the closest thing to closure Obi-Wan was ever going to get. For one more moment, Obi-Wan’s eyes lingered on that final green name, but Maul immediately cut into his musings.

“We are  _ not  _ staging a rescue.” Maul said it forcefully, but anticipated an argument from Kenobi. Instead, however, Obi-Wan responded by turning off the holoprojection. The names disappearing into nothing.  

“I know...” Obi-Wan’s voice was heavy with defeat, he knew all too well that attempting to reach out to Caleb would only give the Empire a greater chance of capturing them both. It was the same reason he and Yoda had split up. The further apart in the galaxy they were, the harder it would be for anyone to sense them.   

“If your Jedi trained him well, then he’ll survive.” Maul stated matter-of-factly. If anyone else had said it, it would have sounded like a consolation, but not from Maul. The Jedi doing anything  _ well _ was clearly something Maul doubted.

Obi-Wan’s mind desperately searched for some recollection to confirm that they had indeed taught the padawan well. Obi-Wan had taught many groups of younglings in his time, even once the war started. Being a Jedi Master demanded that he still found the time to pass on as much of his skill and wisdom as he could to the next generation of Jedi. Besides, towards the end of the war, preparing their students as quickly and thoroughly as possible was as much a priority as anything else. With Jedi generals dying on the battlefield every day, they could not afford to keep padawans in the safety of the temple for long. 

Obi-Wan knew he must have taught Caleb in the past, but the only memory to surface clearly was Caleb’s sleepy face, distracted and half asleep as Obi-Wan lectured about economics in the Expansion Region. Something that seemed important at the time, but not something Obi-Wan foresaw keeping Caleb alive...

“I hope we did...” Was all Obi-Wan responded out loud.  

Surprisingly, Maul pressed Obi-Wan further on the topic.

“How old is he?” Maul asked with casual disinterest that didn’t fool Obi-Wan at all. 

Obi-Wan thought for a moment, counting back the years in his mind. Time had been moving so strangely since the start of the war, and the past few days felt like years.   

“Thirteen, he’d just been apprenticed five months before...” Obi-wan finally said.  

Maul snorted, unimpressed.

“I’d already been surviving on the lower levels of Nar Shaddaa for three years when I was his age.” 

Obi-Wan was taken aback, both by this new information, and also by the fact that Maul had volunteered it at all. Surprised despite himself, Obi-wan said, “What were you doing on Nar Shaddaa?”

Maul quieted and Obi-Wan wondered if he simply wouldn’t answer, but after a pause, he spoke solemnly.   

“As part of my training, I was left on many primitive worlds to fend for myself. With every inhospitable world I survived, I proved my worth. Quickly I became a good hunter and tracker, I thought I could survive anywhere. I was... naive and prideful. Two things my master would not abide. So, my new trial was Nar Shaddaa, a very different wilderness than I was used to. I quickly lost that naivety... and pride.” 

Obi-Wan listened in silence. He couldn't stop his mind from replaying the moment he had seen Maul in the bacta tank, all the scars that layered his body. Now, however, he was wondering what scars Maul had that Obi-Wan  _ couldn’t  _ see.

“How did you survive?” But Obi-Wan had pressed Maul too far.      

“By doing the same degrading things as any other street scum, and if you really want the sordid details you can ask any wretch on the streets of Mos Eisley what  _ they  _ did for their last dinner.”            

Obi-Wan didn’t entertain Maul’s harsh return. He was too distracted by his own thoughts, his mind conjuring up fragmented memories of his own childhood. 

He recalled with shame that his greatest concern at thirteen had been avoiding sanitation duty at the temple. Qui-Gon often obliged him, making sure that on days when Obi-Wan’s rotation was up they were training somewhere far away, with bad holonet reception. Not to return till late in the day when work shifts had long since ended. 

What a laughable concern. 

Obi-Wan suspected Maul wouldn’t appreciate the anecdote, so he didn’t share any of his reminiscing out loud.

But any further conversation was abruptly brought to an end when one of the last working systems on the ship chimed. Maul immediately tensed, but Obi-Wan smiled. 

“My contact has arrived.” Obi-Wan kept talking before Maul could comment, “I’m going to go out and meet him. I need you to scrub the ship’s computer before we leave.” 

Obi-wan gave the order effortlessly, but there was no missing the anxious beat afterwards, as he waited to see if Maul would protest. He was pleasantly surprised that Maul acquiesced without contention.

“The data card as well?” Was Maul’s only comment, his face and voice betraying nothing.              

“Yes, especially that.” 

Obi-Wan watched, a bit incredulous, as Maul started his task. Despite the fact that Maul seemed to enjoy fighting him on every other triviality, and went out of his way to insult him at any given chance, when it came down to their survival, Maul was willing to oblige. Obi-Wan suspected this willingness was a result from their earlier battle. It was convenient, if nothing else, but it came with a tinge of unease in his stomach.  

_ You will have my service through force or not at all. _

That was what Maul had said to him before their fight. And the more Maul divulged about his past, the more Obi-Wan understood. But that knowledge did little to ease the sickness in Obi-Wan stomach.   


	23. Chapter 23

Maul hit the controls for the boarding ramp to descend. The ship groaned in protest, sand grinding in every cog and the outer hull popping as dents and divots shifted under the pressure. Maul had wrapped additional synthcloth around his head and face, creating a makeshift cowl to defend against Tatooine’s unrelenting sandstorms. Wrappings also covered the tops of his boots and gloves, an attempt to stop sand from finding its way inside.

As the ramp slowly descended, Maul could make out Obi-Wan standing with another man next to an old landspeeder. The worst of the sandstorm had subsided by now, but gusts of wind still whipped sand up from the ground, making the world beyond look hazy and warm.

Once the ramp was fully lowered, Maul exited the ship, dragging with him both packs he had prepared earlier. When he was in range, he tossed one at Kenobi. A toss, that by all rights, should have decked Obi-Wan. But, it was with Jedi reflexes that Obi-Wan managed to catch and hold onto the hefty pack Maul had lobbed at him. The stunt earned Maul an irritated glare.

“Who's this?” The man standing by the speeder smiled, clearly bemused by their interaction.

“This is Maul,” Obi-Wan quickly offered, “He is my- He’s a...” But just as quickly trailed off, clearly at a loss. But before the pause could grow too long Maul cut in. 

“Escaped slave,” Maul said by way of explanation.   

The man nodded knowingly and didn’t press for any more details. 

“And this is Owen,” Obi-Wan gestured, “He is Anakin’s stepbrother.” That second part, Obi-Wan attempted to say in a casual tone, but caught Maul with a meaningful look. 

Maul nodded, keeping his face as impassive and disinterested as before. But truthfully, that had to be the last thing Maul had imagined Kenobi would say. Anakin’s-  _ Vader’s,  _ brother? Well, stepbrother. Maul sent out a cautious pulse in the Force, it caused Kenobi to glance his way, but elicited nothing from Owen. Not Force sensitive then.

“Well, what are we waiting for. We’re wasting sunslight.” Owen said briskly, but not unkindly, hoisting himself into the landspeeder and holding out a hand to help Obi-Wan inside. 

Maul tossed his pack into the back of the speeder and then clambered in on top of it, hesitant to even augment his movements with the Force in front of Owen. Likely Owen knew Kenobi was a Jedi, but Maul preferred to keep his own abilities secret for the time being. 

“Thank you,” Obi-Wan was saying to Owen, “For everything.” Maul could hear the weight of the words, though he didn’t know what they meant yet. 

“Don’t thank me yet,” Owen said good naturedly, “We’re not going to make it to your safe house before dark. We’ll have to go back to my house and I’ll take you the rest of the way first thing in the morning.”

“It's too dangerous,” Obi-Wan insisted, “We’ll only be putting you and Beru in more danger-” But Obi-Wan didn’t get to finish because Owen spoke over him. 

“What’s dangerous is the raiders. Traveling at night is just asking to be attacked by sandpeople. The Empire isn’t going to come knocking down my door if you stay one night.” 

“Alright,” Obi-Wan relinquished, “One night.”   

And that those were the last words spoken as the landspeeder’s repulsorlifts hummed to life and sent them speeding off across the desert. The wind and sand whipping their faces and whisking away any words should they try to speak.

Maul took a quick glance behind him, before their ship was completely out of sight. It already had a thick inch coating of sand across the top. In a day or two it would be swallowed whole... They weren’t leaving Tatooine any time soon. 

The ride was long, but uneventful. Owen skillfully navigated the speeder through the maze like canyons and out into the sandy foothills of the mountains they had passed when first arriving, and eventually beyond and into the massive dunes that made up most of Tatooine's desert. And despite Maul’s best effort, he had eventually lost his sense of direction, the non-descript wasteland blurring together. 

Tatooine's binary suns were low in the sky when the first signs of habitation appeared on the horizon. Homesteads small and bleary in the distance as the speeder skirted the edge of farmlands. Skeletal looking moisture vaporators silhouetted in the dusk disrupting the otherwise smooth expanse of now red desert.

It felt like they had passed countless identical farms before they finally reached the Lars’s property. It was dark when the landspeeder hummed to a stop in front of Owen’s modest home. Within moments, Beru had come out to greet them. First enveloping Owen in a hug, and then Obi-Wan. Maul made himself scarce, digging their belongings out of the speeder. 

Maul could overhear the pleasantries being exchanged between Kenobi and the woman, who Maul assumed was Owen’s wife. Whoever these people were, Maul decided, they clearly didn’t  _ really  _ know what was happening. They couldn’t begin to imagine what Maul or Obi-Wan had seen and endured since the Clone War began, let alone the past few days. These two weren’t Force sensitive, they weren’t warriors, they were just weak pathetic humans. And Maul wanted nothing to do with them. 

Obi-Wan excused himself under the pretense of helping Maul move their things. Owen and Beru moved inside the house, promising to reheat dinner for them when they were done. 

“We should keep going.” Maul immediately said when the two humans were out of earshot. 

“Owen was right,” Obi-Wan said calmly, “The desert is dangerous at night. We’ll be safer traveling in the daylight tomorrow.”

“I’m fully capable of fighting off  _ raiders, _ ” Maul said the word in disgust.    

“I’m sure you are, but the safe house will be a great deal less safe if we leave a trail of blood and carnage leading up to the doorstep.” Obi-Wan shouldered one of the packs and moved to start heading back to the house. 

Maul growled under his breath, taking the other bag on his back. 


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Happy Thanksgiving!
> 
> A little bit of a longer chapter today, please enjoy!
> 
> Also, I went back and responded to comments I've missed along the way (Sorry some of those are four months old now, my bad haha)
> 
> I really hope you enjoy the chapter and I hope you have a nice thanksgiving!

Maul and Obi-Wan entered through the door closest to the parked landspeeder. Dragging, as much as carrying their packs, which felt exponentially heavier than when they had started. The door they went through appeared to be a back entrance to the house and once inside, they found themselves standing at the end of a short hallway. From the far end of the hallway came the sounds and smells of a kitchen. A friendly shout from Beru told them to leave their luggage in the room at the opposite end of the hall. 

Obi-Wan glanced to his left, there was only one door at that end of the hallway, so he headed for it. Maul trailed behind slower, eyes narrowed in distaste as he took in the primitive house.

The room they found themselves in had probably been a large storage closet in its past life. But could now be generously called a guest room. It's only amenity of note was the large makeshift bed located in the back corner. It wasn’t a proper bed, more like a collection of mismatched bantha hide blankets and pillows on top of a mattresses made from desert hay. 

However, the sight of the homespun bed filled Obi-Wan with a serenity he didn’t know he was capable of feeling anymore. Everything about the bed radiated joy, it was evident in the painstakingly handcrafted patterns in the woven quilts and the meticulously beaded designs on the pillows that they had been made with love. It was nothing like the sterile bunks of starships, or the even more utilitarian cots they used on the ground. As Obi-Wan relaxed into the feeling of the house, he found similar joy and peace coming from all around him. A well of lightside energy the likes of which he hadn’t felt since years earlier in the temple. 

Somehow, despite the rest of the galaxy plunging into an even deeper darkness, bubbles like this still existed, shining bright in the Force. Obi-Wan allowed himself to be swept up by the feeling, sitting down on the bed and closing his eyes. There was so much love in this house. The walls and floors built by family members decades earlier, the farm passing down through generations. Children had been born within these walls, countless homemade meals shared, tragedies survived and loses mourned.  _ This,  _ Obi-Wan thought, was what he had been fighting to protect for so long. These were the people, the lives, that the Jedi were meant to protect. Though, in recent years, Obi-Wan knew the Jedi had lost sight of that. 

It felt almost impossible that there could be this much love left in the galaxy after everything Obi-Wan had seen transpire. 

Obi-Wan wrapped himself with as much of the light side energies he could collect, feeling his spirit lift and his resolve harden. There was still something in the galaxy worth protecting. Everything wasn’t lost. Not yet.

A loud scraping sound broke Obi-Wan out of his reverie. He looked up to see Maul pushing around some storage crates that had been in the back of the room.

Obi-Wan was about to ask what exactly he thought he was doing, but ultimately didn’t bother. 

Maul continued to move the crates, running his hands along their surfaces, checking their contents, then moving on to a different part of the room. Constantly brushing his hands along any ridges or shelves that might hide recording devices. Tapping on the walls and floors, determining weak points in the construction, checking for possible ways of egress. He made a frustrated grunting noise when he inspected the primitive lock on the door. 

Maul radiated irritation and unease, and Obi-Wan didn’t need to use the Force to sense it. His movements and demeanor were all Obi-Wan had to observe to see how deeply Maul was unnerved. Somehow even more unsettled than Obi-Wan had yet to see him. 

Obi-Wan continued to watch Maul do his security checks and threat assessments, but Maul’s frustration was clearly mounting. He was pacing as much as actually inspecting the room. 

Obi-Wan had to assume the light side energies he himself was so thriving on right now, were difficult and distracting to Maul. Probably interfering with his connection to the Force. But after a moment, a simpler explanation dawned on Obi-Wan. 

Had Maul ever actually been in a  _ home  _ before?                   

Despite attachment being forbidden to Jedi, the temple had always been Obi-Wan’s home. No biological family of course, but the other Jedi had always been his kindred. Qui-gon as much of a father as Obi-Wan would ever know. Anakin as much of a brother. 

But Maul? Had he ever even shared a hot meal with another creature?

Like Maul could feel Obi-Wan’s increased interest in him, he spun and snapped. 

“This is ridiculous. This room is a logistical nightmare. We have no way to see an enemy approaching, no escape if we get trapped in here. These walls won’t hold five minutes under sustained blaster fire and the door-” Maul actually paused to take a breath before he launched into his grievances against the door, “ _ This door _ is so primitive the lock isn't even  _ electronic _ . Not that a better lock would even  _ help.  _ It would still be easier to just break it off at the hinges, or straight through the middle if you were wearing heavy enough boots.” Maul slammed his hand into the door for emphasis, and it left a an obvious dent. 

Obi-Wan patiently waited for Maul to finish, though he made  a mental note to apologize to Owen for the dent before they left.

When Maul seemed to have finished his angry tirade, Obi-Wan finally responded.

“Reach out with your feelings.”

“ _ What?” _ Maul practically spat the question back at Kenobi.  

“Tell me if you  _ feel  _ an imminent threat approaching. Go on.” Obi-Wan prompted gently. 

Maul held Obi-Wan in such a fierce glare, that Obi-Wan wondered if somehow  _ this  _ was what was going to prompt Maul to kill him. But after an incredibly long and tense moment, Maul finally turned away from him, growling in frustration, but not arguing further. 

With a heavy irritated sigh, Maul closed his eyes and wrestled the Force around him into submission. 

Obi-Wan felt it like a vacuum, the warmth and light in the air around Maul suddenly gone. Within the room, colors looked less saturated and the air tasted metallic. Maul was obviously struggling to exert his Force powers inside this bubble of light side energies. There was nothing to pull darkness from, he would have to generate it all himself.

But after a few slow minutes, Maul seemed to find his center. Reaching out all around with the Force, looking both into the distance of the landscape, as well as the distance of the future.

“I don’t see an  _ immediate  _ threat,” he conceded, “but I can feel the Empire spreading through the galaxy, faster than I would have thought possible.”

Obi-Wan nodded. 

“I sense that as well. But as long as they don’t reach Tatooine tonight, than staying here is a calculated risk I’m willing to take.”  __

“Well, it's not one I’m willing to take.” Maul said darkly, and turned away from Obi-Wan and towards the door.                         

“Maul!” Obi-Wan snapped, “Where are you going?” 

Maul stopped moving but didn’t turn around.  

“Are you going to order me to stay?” His voice was surprisingly calm. 

“Why are you-” 

“Will you force me to remain here?” He repeated, this time with more anger.

Obi-Wan’s heart sank. This was word for word almost an exact conversation he had had with Anakin so many years ago. When they had both been so much younger... 

Obi-Wan was ashamed to admit that the last time he had lost his temper, letting  _ his  _ emotions dictate his response. Speaking in anger, rather than reason. 

_ Yes! I am your master, and I am ordering you to do this! _

Those were words Obi-Wan regretted the instant they left his mouth. Words that caused a rift between the two of them for month. And if Obi-Wan was being truly honest with himself, words he didn’t think Anakin had  _ ever _ forgiven him for. 

But maybe, he could do better this time...

Obi-Wan sighed deeply, collecting himself before he spoke. 

“If you leave...” Obi-Wan began calmly, “Will you come back?”

“Yes.” There was no hesitation when Maul said the word. 

“Then go, I won’t stop you.”

 


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! I hope everyone has had a chance to see and enjoy Rogue One! And if you are keeping up with Rebels, the Mid-season finale was great!  
> My most sincere apologies for the long absence, but I am officially on winter break now and will (hopefully) get a few update sin before school starts again. 
> 
> this chapter was fun to write- very introspective. A bit of a throw back to some earlier chapters with minimal dialogue and a lot of Force meta. hope you enjoy!

The night was cold on Tatooine. Nothing to keep the heat from the day on the surface, and with their binary suns well below the horizon, the temperature was plummeting. The last winds from the earlier storm continued to whip across the desert’s surface, causing small clouds of sand to billow over the dunes. The night sky stretched out, stars and distant systems clear and brilliant beyond Tatooine’s thin atmosphere. 

Already several miles from the Lar’s property, the homestead completely lost from sight behind the rolling dunes, Maul ran. Legs pumping against the sand, which continued to slip beneath his feet and slow his strides. Despite the cold, his body burned and sweat prickled along his skin.

The sand reminded him of training on planets with high gravity, the terrain making each step a struggle. A distance he could have run with ease on a training track, he could barely jog through on this desert. 

With a final effort, Maul ran a few more steps, feeling the muscles in his legs shake with the exertion. And then with a surge of energy, and a feeling akin to joy, he let the Force take over. For a few blissful moments he felt weightless, the Force augmenting his steps, pushing him forwards faster than he had been running before. Something else burned through his veins now and powered his muscles, something that pulled at the edges of his mind and tempted him to give up further control.  The whispers of the dark side surrounded him and it lit every nerve ending throughout his body. It felt like he could run forever, defeat a thousand men or jump right off the ridge edge and land without a scratch.

The Jedi weren’t wrong when they said the dark side seduced the weak. The Force was dangerous, and to be caught in its flow meant you could be dashed on rocks or dragged under by a rip current. To meddle with the Force demanded that one be in control, that one has the will to dominate and the power to subjugate.

Which is what Maul did, channeling the latent dark side energies away from his mind, collecting the power that had spread through the rest of his body, and focusing it back into his legs, his feet, the sand directly under his boots. Augmenting each step so it felt as effortless as running in zero gravity. Maul willed more energy into existence, remembering his hate, his fear, his desperation. Fueling the Force with his emotions.

But just like his legs grew weary, so did his will. Without an enemy, without an immediate threat- and without any physical pain, he wouldn’t be able to sustain the dark energies forever.

But the miles slipped by, and eventually a cliffside broke the horizon ahead of him. 

Maul hadn’t know where he was running. He wasn’t running away, he had never run away-  _ would never.  _ But there was very little to run towards. In the end he had to accept that he ran to simply feel like he was moving. And that in the face of uncertainty, he would always fall back on his training. 

Strength, he had been taught, required sacrifice and pain, and the dark side demanded it. Self mutilation was an inadvisable option, and Maul had always looked down Sith lords that had indulged in the practice. There were usually more productive ways to induce pain, such as the fatigue and exhaustion Maul felt setting in across his body. It was an art Maul was well versed in, to be able to find one’s own breaking point. It was necessary if one wished to cultivate the dark side, the ability to push yourself just past that breaking point and into agony. Just enough to entice the darkness, but not too far that you would injured yourself permanently.  

And Maul was just at his breaking point. 

The cliff wall rose above him, made of craggy, uneven rocks. Further down the wall was a natural rock staircase, no doubt worn down even further by travelers. But Maul was intent to scale the cliff on his own. 

With virtually the Force alone, Maul clambered up the rocks. Footing was abundant, but the stones were sharp and bit his hands as he went. Winds that had felt mild on the ground now whipped across him, stinging the exposed skin on his back. It took all of Maul’s focus to embrace the pain and redirect it into the Force grip he had on the rocks. His muscles had long since given out, exhausted from the run and now pulled and torn from the climb. It was a slow, agonizing process. Each handhold felt further away than the last, and while the ground was growing distant- the end didn’t seem to get closer.   

Finally, the flat outcropping Maul was aiming for was soon to be within his reach, but for an instant, Maul entertained the doubt that he had miscalculated. Was the wall too steep, the distance too long? Had he let his over confidence get the better of him...? The ledge he needed to reach seemed close and impossibly far at the same time, meanwhile the Force grip he held onto the wall with was ebbing every second. 

Desperately, Maul swung and reached for the next handhold, but his fingers failed to catch their target. In an instant, Maul felt cold panic wash over him, the ground below him so far away, and the only thing keeping him from falling was his precarious one-handed grip on the rock wall. 

The cold winds paled in comparison to the soul piercing dread that flooded through Maul’s chest. After everything he had just been through- everything he had just survive- was he about to die scaling a canyon wall on Force forsaken Tatooine?

But it was this fear that made him strong.  __

Through instinct and practice and desperation, Maul embraced the dread and the panic. Even as his grip failed and the overwhelming primal fear of death coursed through his body, Maul embraced it all. The Force around him began reacting and surging, practically shimmering in the air. Sudden strength enveloped Maul, and briefly his Forces sense heightened. Time felt slow, the moments he had before plunging to his death dragged out around him. And as he looked for a way to save himself, his path became obvious, his foresight illuminating the way. With impossibly quick reflexes, Maul caught hold of the grip he needed, seconds later his feet finding their own purchase. And somehow, the ledge that had seemed so far away- was practically in arms reach now.

Before Maul could lose his focus, he grasped hold of the ledge and swung his whole body up and onto the flat outcropping. With the imminent threat of death gone, the dark side was quick to leave him. 

Freezing, bleeding, exhausted, Maul shivered on the ledge. 

But stronger. More powerful. Master of the dark side once again.      


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two updates in a week? Insane. 
> 
> Thank you so so much for every lovely comment and kudo, it means so much!
> 
> Without further adieu- enjoy!

Maul sat on the edge of the outcropping, his legs hanging over the side. The cuts along his hands had stopped bleeding, In the end all the damage done was minor. His body ached, but the latent buzz of adrenaline muted the sensation. The winds were still cold, but with his cloak pulled tight around him again, he felt their bite lessen.    

From this high up he could just make out a speck on the horizon that must have been the homestead. There was no way his eyes could actually see the lights coming from the windows or the open door. He certainly couldn’t see Obi-Wan standing in the doorway, looking out across the desert in his direction. But he knew that he was. In Maul’s mind he could perfectly see the Jedi, now speaking gently to the man named Owen. 

Maul looked away for a moment. Beside him were the bodies of several dead rodent-like creatures native to Tatooine, they lived in the cracks and small niches of the cliff wall. Picking one up, Maul inspected it before bringing it to his mouth and taking a bite. It tasted familiar, like the thousands of other small animals he had hunted.  

Despite being hungry, Maul only picked at the rat, soon returning his attention to the speck on the horizon. Maul wondered if he  _ was  _ imagining what he saw. Obi-Wan getting into the landspeeder, powering up the engines and- there it was. The unmistakable flash of repulsors coming to life, small and distant, but undeniable. Maul sighed inwardly... Obi-wan was coming to look for him.      

Well, Maul wasn’t hiding. 

For the briefest instant Maul let his Force barrier down, allowing his presence to glow brightly in the Force. He wondered if his old master would sense him, though that seemed unlikely. There used to be a time when Sidious could have found him anywhere, when no place in the galaxy was safe from his master’s seemingly omniscient control. That connection had long since been severed... But Maul was under no illusions, Sidious had  _ let  _ him go. Their connection was gone because his master had no further use for him, no desire to know where he was...                   

Obi-Wan, on the other hand, would feel him instantly. In a few more moments Maul could see the lights from the speeder growing increasingly closer. 

Maul wasn’t sure what Obi-Wan’s intentions for him were. He must have changed his mind, of course. Obi-Wan would be coming to take him back to the house. DId Kenobi plan to punish him for leaving?  

But these thoughts were idle, and didn’t cause Maul any alarm. While Kenobi would be well within his rights to admonish Maul for his actions, somehow he doubted Kenobi was going to do so. Obi-Wan’s Jedi hypocrisies lay along different lines. Despite having been high general of the Republic’s grand slave army, he still feigned offense at controlling another sentient lifeform. But Jedi moral trappings aside, Kenobi was strong. Probably the only real force left in the galaxy that could even hope to rival Darth Vader. And if Maul had to cast his lots somewhere, Kenobi had more than earned it. Putting up with Obi-Wan’s residual Jedi habits was a small price to pay.

At the base of the cliff, Obi-Wan and his speeder were still small and indistinct, but Maul could see Obi-Wan exit the vehicle and start his slow climb up the natural staircase. The rock steps wound their way up the side of the cliff, eventually connecting to the series of flat outcroppings Maul was waiting on. It was many long minutes before Obi-Wan reached him. 

Finally Obi-Wan arrived at the top of the stairs, climbing over the last rocks that lead onto the system of outcroppings. With some exaggeration, Obi-Wan sat down heavily, leaned his back against the cliff face and exhaled deeply. Maul ignored him, his gaze still fixated on the distant horizon. 

Even with Kenobi so close at hand, Maul couldn’t sense his intent. Sometimes Jedi emotions were easy to read, their suppressed feelings so violent when they finally broke the surface. But at most times Jedi thoughts were almost impenetrable, their Force barriers so complete. That was how Obi-Wan was now, a wall of placid calm, unreadable and unsettling. 

Maul stayed silent, forcing Obi-Wan to speak first. 

“I know you thought the room wasn’t secure- but I’m not sure  _ this  _ is an upgrade.”  Obi-Wan gestured to the barren outcrop around them. 

Maul could hear the humour in Kenobi’s comment, something Obi-Wan did quite often. Maul had yet to decipher exactly what the tone meant, but he was sure it was some kind of deflection or defense. A way to hide his emotions maybe? It was hard to tell what mood was hidden behind Obi-Wan’s innocuous banter...

“I have a wall at my back and can see an enemy for miles- so yes.” Maul countered. Obi-Wan simply shrugged, conceding the point.

“Here,” Obi-Wan said from over his shoulder, and Maul finally turned to look at him. Obi-Wan held out a small thermos, but Maul made no move to take it. “Its leftover stew, not a Velusian fursnake- take it,” Obi-Wan insisted.

Maul took the thermos reluctantly. 

“I don’t need this,” Maul said with irritation, inspecting the container suspiciously, despite Obi-Wan’s assertion that it was food and not poison. And after a few more moments of Maul looking at, but not actually opening the thermos, Obi-Wan spoke again in a slow serious voice.

“We will be living off womp rats soon enough. It would be foolish not to take advantage of these resources while we can.” Obi-Wan paused to catch Maul’s gaze, “So eat your stew.”

As Obi-Wan had suspected, Maul couldn’t refute that logic and begrudgingly opened the thermos.  


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello hello. 
> 
> I hope everyone had happy holidays. 
> 
> I'm happy to announce we just passed 30,000 words! Which is such a great milestone for me. So thanks for sticking with me this far!
> 
> (this is a bit of a transition chapter. We're just wrapping up some loose ends. When Maul and Obi-Wan wake up tomorrow, they will be off on a whole new part of their adventure!)

Maul had returned to staring out across the desert, Obi-Wan still sitting somewhere behind him, resting against the cliff surface. Maul begrudgingly sipped at the open thermos, but as he drank the broth he was suddenly hit with how hungry he was. The meager rats he had killed had provided little meat, the rations bar he had on the ship seemed millennia ago... He hadn’t had warm food since The Spire- and  _ that  _ was another lifetime ago.

So, what had started out as cautious sips quickly became involuntary fast gulps of the stew. Maul cared little about how food tasted, but after a decade in prison, where food was warm and nutritious but had all the flavor and texture of damp wood pulp, there was something about the rich oils and vibrant spices in the stew that had him enjoying it despite himself. But, he had no intention of letting Obi-Wan know that.    

With difficulty, he stopped himself from finishing the thermos in one go, instead placing it down at his side with determination. Indulgences in food and material goods were for fools who lacked vision. Merely the distractions of lesser beings. At least, that was what he had always been taught. But surely he needed the energy to continue on, and Obi-Wan had a point- food would only become more scarce as they traveled...

He glanced to the thermos again, and then made up his mind. Taking it and finishing the stew in one satisfying swig.

Having now finished the thermos Maul waited for Obi-wan to speak again, to make some comment or ask a trivial question about how he liked the stew. But Obi-Wan said nothing.  

Maul could feel the silence spanning out between the two of them, each carefully shielding their thoughts, and neither making any move to speak. Maul couldn’t fathom what Obi-Wan wanted him to say, what response he was waiting for that would end their silent standoff. 

Cold and more than a little frustrated Maul finally broke the silence. 

“Are you displeased with me?” He kept his voice neutral, his eyes still on the horizon. He had never had to ask his old master such a question, Sidious made his displeasure well known to Maul. But whatever Obi-Wan was feeling... Maul couldn't sense it. 

“Displeased?” Obi-Wan echoed, “No, not displeased. I’m relieved actually.” 

Finally Maul turned his body so he could watch Obi-Wan’s features, to try and determine the meaning of his words. 

“I have to admit, I feared that when I found you it would be surrounded by a field of corpses.” Obi-Wan smiled thinly, “So, no I’m pleasantly surprised. My misgiving were unfounded.”

Maul grunted dismissively, but didn’t contest Obi-Wan’s statement.

Obi-Wan sighed deeply, it was his turn to look out along the dune and to the small speck that was the homestead.

“Well, come on. There are only a few hours before dawn.” Obi-Wan stood stretching and began to head to the rock steps. 

Maul made no move to follow him. 

“Maul,” Obi-Wan said, seeing Maul’s inaction, “I’m going to have to insist.”                

“I’ll make my own way back.” Maul said simply, but Obi-Wan cut him off.

“You are in no condition to  _ run  _ all the way back. By the time you make it, it will be sunrise.” Obi-Wan said with irritation, a little bit if his composure slipping. Maul bared his teeth slightly, ready to take that challenge and prove Obi-Wan wrong. Seeing this, Obi-Wan switched tactics.

“Maul,” he began again slowly, “tomorrow will be a long and trying day. And if you don’t rest tonight- you will be of no use to me. You can impress me by being well rested and on point tomorrow- not by rejecting a perfectly good speeder tonight out of some misplaced vanity.”

Obi-Wan paused, wondering if he had gone too far. But Maul’s expression was neutral, maybe even mildly chastened. 

“Alright,” Maul nodded slightly, “lead the way.”

__________________

Maul and Obi-Wan found themselves back in the small guest room shortly. The speeder ride quick and uneventful. Obi-Wan stumbled to the bed, tired from the long day and events of the night. 

As he fell to the bed, he once again felt the warm light side energies swallow him. He had been pushing back his weariness for hours, days even. But suddenly, all his defenses had dropped. He had hardly finished removing his shoes when he felt sleep touching his mind.

Maul had sat down on the floor opposite, clearly meditating. Obi-Wan’s tired mind considered it himself. Meditation before sleep was a common practice. A convenient way to tap into one’s subconscious, sometimes even assign it tasks to completely while the waking mind slept. But Obi-Wan was too tired, he knew the moment his eyes closed he would fall asleep.   

Still only half undressed, and barely on the bed, Obi-Wan let go of his consciousness and fell asleep. Too tired to dream and grateful for it. 

As he slept, Obi-wan was only vaguely aware of his surroundings, the light from the setting moon finding its way into their room, the occasional howls of sand people and their beasts and the brief sandstorm that swept by them in the night. Despite being well and sound asleep, something  woke him, though he wasn’t sure what. In a daze, his eyes flickered open again.

The room was dark, but everything within etched out clearly in moonlight. Obi-Wan rolled over and blinked, momentarily unsure of where he was. Slowly memories came back in a dreamy haze. The room, the house, their ship... he remembered it all like a dream. With a low groan Obi-Wan adjusted his position, determined to fall back to sleep. The night hours were too few and too precious to waste.

But in a last glance about the room his eyes fell on Maul. There was the faint prickle of panic, before his mind caught up, filling in the events of the past few days. The bizarre circumstances he was in, where sharing a bedroom with a Sith was normal. 

Relaxed again, and still on the verge of sleep, Obi-Wan studied Maul. He was asleep on the floor, wedged against the wall opposite the bed Obi-Wan was on. No pillows or blankets, just his large outer robe balled up beneath his head. 

Obi-Wan felt the familiar pang in his stomach, somewhere between pity and guilt. Much like when he had seen Maul suspended in the bacta tube, Obi-Wan was struck by how small Maul was. How fragile and human he looked, curled on the floor asleep and vulnerable. That sleeping on the ground like this, without a bed, must have been normal for him. That Maul had simply assumed his place was on the floor.

But these thoughts were jumbled, coming and going like dream fragments, mixed with memories of other people. 

Half asleep, but determined to fix this, Obi-Wan felt blindly around him for something. His hands finally landing on a nearby pillow. Having found what he sought, Obi-Wan groggily took hold of the pillow, and threw it haphazardly across the room- vaguely in Maul’s direction. 

With dream like logic, Obi-Wan’s mind felt satisfied that it had solved the problem, and quickly swept him back to sleep.         


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello hello,
> 
> Welcome back. I wanted to get one more update in before my life got too hectic again. 
> 
> Not a lot of Maul today (sorry!) But check the end for an extra this week ;)

Tatooine’s first sun broke the horizon, filling the room with dusty light and waking Obi-Wan up in the process. 

Obi-Wan wasn't sure how long he had slept, how long a rotation was on Tatooine, but it felt early. With a stretch, Obi-Wan sat up, taking in the room quickly. He was alone. He tried to suppress the quick panic that came with that realization and instead reached out in the Force. Maul was still here, still in the house. Obi-Wan let out a sigh, of course he was still here. Maul had his chance to run last night, and he didn’t. There was no reason to keep doubting him. Doubting him about  _ that  _ at least...

As Obi-Wan’s thoughts replayed some of the previous night, he found that the memories felt blurry, the details seemed indistinct. He knew it hadn’t all been a dream, but something about the memories seemed unreal and odd. He and Maul had started to come to an understanding on that outcropping. They had started... something. But what it was Obi-Wan couldn’t put his finger on, and he felt certain that despite whatever common ground they had reached last night, Maul was going to be just as abrasive as ever when he saw him today.

Obi-Wan shook his head, like the motion could dispel his ponderings. He gave the room a final glance, his boots and outer robes were where he left them on the floor, their packs sat undisturbed in the corner of the room, Maul had left no trace of his presence in the room. Obi-Wan looked across the bed, like he was forgetting something. At the foot of the bed was a single undisturbed pillow, set neatly on the side. Obi-Wan stared at it for a moment. Something tugging at his mind, but he couldn’t place what, an event from last night he had forgotten? But nothing came to mind, and Obi-Wan dismissed it out of hand.

With a final stretch Obi-Wan forced himself out of the bed, slipping his feet back into his boots and untangling his robe from the knot it had made itself into it when he had carelessly dropped it on the ground. Redressed and bordering on presentable, Obi-Wan ran a hand through his hair. He could feel the grit made from sand and sweat under his fingers and it brought back memories of his first time on Tatooine. His hair had been shorter then, but the sensation was familiar. And not for the first time, he wondered how anyone could live on this dusty rock. 

Anxious to start, and aware of the ever increasing dangers, Obi-Wan left the room to seek out Owen.

On entering the Kitchen area of the home, Obi-Wan was surprised to see Maul was already there, seated at the table and talking to Owen, a holo map spread out across the table in front of them. 

Obi-Wan couldn’t catch their words, but Maul finished saying something in a low voice and Owen laughed, pointing out something on the map in answer. 

They both looked up when Obi-Wan entered. Obi-Wan tried to mask the shock on his face, and instead said, “Good morning, Owen... Maul.”

Maul glared at him and dipped his head slightly in response. Which was about as friendly as Obi-Wan supposed it was ever going to get. 

“Morning, Obi-Wan. I was just showing your friend the map of the local area. Figured we’d have a nice chat while you slept in.” Owen said in a friendly voice, gesturing at the open seat for Obi-Wan to take. 

Obi-Wan completely failed to mask his disbelief this time and simply stuttered, “Uh, yes, or course. Thank you.” And sat down casting a bewildered glance at Maul, who only glared back. Obi-Wan couldn’t even fathom what Maul had been saying to Owen, couldn’t believe that  _ friendly  _ was a demeanor Maul could even fake. But whatever Maul had said or done, Owen seemed at complete ease around him. 

“I’ll go pack the speeder.” Maul said abruptly and with a brisk gesture shoved a half finished bowl of some grain mixture at Obi-Wan. 

“Don’t forget the food packs Beru prepared!” Owen shouted to him as he walked away. Maul made a gesture over his shoulder in acknowledgement. 

As Maul moved out of earshot Owen said to Obi-Wan, “Sounds like you two been on quite the adventure.” 

Obi-Wan stared back at him, still reeling. “You could, uh, say that, yes.” Surely Maul hadn’t told Owen the truth? But if not the truth,  _ then what?  _ “It has been, an  _ eventful  _ few days.” 

“Well,” Owen laughed, “good luck with that.” And gave Obi-Wan a conspiratorial wink that left Obi-Wan speechless, mouth slightly agape. In that moment, Obi-Wan decided he  _ didn’t want to know _ what lies Maul had woven. 

“We should really get going,” Obi-Wan finally managed. “It's still a long ways to the safe house.”   

“You’re right,” Owen stretched and stood up. “If we wanna make it in one go we should get on the sand soon.”

Obi-Wan stood and caught Owen's arm.

“Thank you, Owen. I wouldn’t have involved you if I had any other choice.”

Owen smiled and placed a reassuring hand over Obi-Wan’s. 

“I don’t understand it all, and I get the feeling there is something you’re still not telling me... But I’ll do anything for family.” 

Obi-Wan nodded, allowing some of his guilt to show through. Owen deserved the truth, but would be safer without it... 

“Your brother was a great Jedi, and what you are helping me do now... he would be very thankful.” Obi-Wan barely managed the words all the way till the end. 

“I know,” Owen said with a sad smile. “But hey, bring them to visit me and Beru sometime. When they're old enough.”

“Of course,” Obi-Wan pushed as much gentle persuasion and warmth into the words as he could through the Force. They could never see each other again. This was to be the last time he ever saw Owen, unless they both somehow outlived the Empire. But Owen didn't need to know that, not yet. Obi-Wan pushed all of his will into their touching hands. Willing the happiness and hope and imaginary future into Owen’s mind, that it might live there for years to come. “They’ll love to meet you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *not pictured*
> 
> Obi-Wan half asleep throwing a pillow at Maul. Maul instantly waking up, about to kill a man and then just whispering "what the fuck, kenobi." When he sees it's a pillow and that obi-Wan is a dead asleep. 
> 
> Maul looking around not exactly sure what he is supposed to make of this situation. Picking up the pillow and looking at it with confusion. Finally, hesitantly, deciding that if it's here he might as well use it. 
> 
> Falling back asleep hugging the pillow.
> 
> Waking up the next morning. Obi-Wan still dead to the world, and lhalf falling off the bed. Maul returns the pillow to the end of the bed. Setting it down carfully as to not wake obi-wan.


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for your lovely comments on last chapter! They mean the world to me <3
> 
> Slightly longer chapter this week. I'm going to try and up the word count per chapter, so this should be a trend! 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy!

Outside the homestead, Tatooine’s second sun had finally breached the horizon.The red uncertain haze of dawn had all but dissipated as the two suns set their course across the sky. Now the world was etched in hard, piercing light. The sand reflecting back the sun rays so brilliantly it was hard to look out across the desert without squinting. What had started as long double shadows were shrinking down to nothing. Before long, both suns would be hanging over head, trapping everything underneath them in stark illuminated clarity. Soon there would be no shadows, no obscurity, nowhere to hide.  

Maul finished loading the packs into the back of the speeder, with a small grunt of exertion as he hefted each them up and over the side. In addition to their original luggage, there was also now a bag full of foodstuffs Beru had insisted on giving to them. After everything had been loaded, there wasn't much room left in the back row of seats for Maul himself, but he swung up and into the speeder, eventually finding a relatively comfortable position for what promised to be a lengthy ride.

Obi-Wan and Owen appeared momentarily, and wasted no time taking their positions in the front two seats, Owen at the controls and Obi-Wan in the seat next to him. Obi-Wan cast Maul a quick glance over his shoulder and Maul gave a small affirmative nod, an all-clear. Obi-Wan turned back to Owen, speaking softly and consulting the navigation maps.   

While Owen and Obi-Wan made the final decisions about their route, Maul replaced his face coverings, he could already feel the small sand particles stinging the rims of eyes and since the speeder had no roof or shields to protect passengers it would only get worse once they were moving.

With a jolt, the speeder sprang to life, repulsors levitating them off the ground. And after a moment of adjusting controls, Owen set them off at a good clip across the sands. Noise from the rushing wind and hum of the engines made it hard to keep up a conversation in the vehicle. Even when shouting, most words were whisked away before anyone could understand them. None of that stopped Owen from trying though, shouting loudly at Obi-Wan to be heard above the din.

At first Maul tried to listen, but he soon realised that all Owen was talking about was farming. Obi-Wan professed to know nothing about moisture farming, so Owen started from the beginning. Describing in tedious detail all the intricacies of running a moisture farm. Maul was suddenly glad that the winds were sweeping away Owen's words, glad that it was Obi-Wan in the front seat and not himself.

The desert fell away around them even quicker as they picked up speed, the landscape blurring together into one great expanse of hazy dust. Above them, Tatooine’s suns were warm and oppressive. As Maul rested his body into the large packs for support, he felt his eyes heavying against the day's brightness. The white noise of the wind and engines along with the rhythmic vibrations of the speeder only lulled him further away from reality. He wouldn't sleep. He knew he had to stay alert, aware of his surroundings at all times... but he couldn't help as his body relaxed and softened under the desert’s unrelenting heat. It was a long ride, and with no immediate danger, it was easy to find himself drifting in and out of memories.  

In the distance of his mind, Maul could still hear the fragments of Owen’s voice. Describing the latest innovations in moisture vaporator technology. He had the impression of time passing, slow and unremarkable.  The minutes lapsing seamlessly into hours, nothing to indicate the change but the imperceptible crawl of the suns above them.

With his eyes closed, Maul kept tabs on the psychic landscape. Much like the actual landscape, it was almost completely barren. Maul could feel the occasional presence of a non-sentient life forms in the distance, the lingering hum of long dead peoples who had once lived in the desert, and Tatooine’s own unique vibration in the Force. But something on the edge of Maul’s awareness began to stir. Instantly his eyes flicked back open, something he regretted instantly as the harsh midday suns blinded him for a moment.  

Instinctively, Maul's mind reached out to Obi-Wan. He could feel the Jedi also reacting to whatever lay at the edge of their perception.  

Maul jolted into a straighter sitting position, squinting to readjust his eyes, and took in the landscape around them. They were winding their way deep within a maze of ravines, natural stone walls climbing up around them in every direction.   

It was still too loud to speak, but Maul could feel Obi-Wan’s thought projections  buffeting at his mental barrier. It was Obi-Wan’s attempt to communicate without speaking. Maul lowered his defenses slightly, allowing Obi-Wan to send him a quick burst of psychic noise. The message wasn’t made up of words, _that_ was only possible with an incredibly strong Force connection and an almost total openness between two minds. What Obi-Wan sent was more like a wave of feelings, vague impressions of what he wanted to communicate. But it was enough.

_Do you feel it?_

Maul sent back a short burst of his own. _Yes._

Obi-Wan reached over to Owen, shouting to be heard, his urgency obvious in his movement.

Maul’s eyes flickered away from them, instead searching the ravine for the source of the sudden disturbance. It was coming like waves in the Force now, each one stronger and more chilling. _Something_ was about to happen. Maul felt every muscle in his body tense, underneath him the speeder began to wobble.

A confused Owen was trying to slow their vehicle down safely, but as Obi-Wan’s persistence intensified, Owen began to wrench at the controls, attempting to stop the speeder as quickly as possible.       

In the midst of this, Maul climbed out of his seat, to crouch on the edge of the now careening speeder. They were almost at the point of the disturbance, and suddenly Maul could feel lifeforms ahead of them now. Maul crouched further down, preparing to spring out of the speeder. However, the had gone even deeper in the ravine now. The pass they were winding along had grown narrow and rock protrusions spiked out from the walls. A jump at this speed risked being thrown against the rock face or into a cluster of sharp stone.

But Maul didn't have a choice. The precognition hit him like a wall, the sudden and instantaneous understanding that he had to jump _now._ Maul hadn’t even hit the ground when he heard the explosion.

Maul hit the ground hard, his body bouncing with the force and rolling several more feet before he stopped. He had wrapped himself in a Force shield before he jumped, but even the Force couldn’t completely soften this impact.

For a few agonizing seconds, Maul couldn’t move. His chest burned, and it felt impossible to breathe. But a moment later his breath caught up with him. The sudden influx of air into his lungs made his chest expanded, and while the oxygen eased the burn in his lungs, it set his ribs on fire. It was a few more strangled gasps, before Maul was able to force himself off the ground.

Dizzy from the fall, but forcing his mind through it, Maul took in the scene around him in a few quick glances.

Ahead of him, along the route the speeder had been going, was now a wall of freshly fallen rocks and debris. The explosions he heard obviously the catalyst to this manufactured rockslide. Someone, had set a trap for them.

For a moment Maul wondered if the speeder had been caught under the falling rocks, but he caught sight of it, half turned on its side mere yards from the edge of the ruble.

Maul made a dash towards it, one hand feeling for the hilt of his lightsaber. It was hard to hear anything after the deafening explosions, but he had the unmistakable impression of hearing weapons being primed and readied above him somewhere at the top of the ravine.

Maul ducked behind the nearly sideways speeder, the best excuse for cover in this barren rock hallways they were trapped in. Maul was unsurprised to find Kenobi already there, Owen’s limp body on the ground next to him.

“Dead?” Maul asked, taking a moment to appraise Obi-Wan.The speeder crash hadn’t been kind to him, but the injuries looked superficial.

“Unconscious,” Obi-Wan said, breathing hard. “Lost control of the speeder trying not to be crushed by the rock fall.”

But their conversation was cut short as the first barrage of blaster fire rained down on them. Most of the bolts ricocheted off the up turned speeder, but a few singed the ground not far from where the two crouched. The blasts were accompanied by the unmistakable wail of Raiders.

Maul unfastened the hilt of his blade, holding it out a safe distance and igniting both ends.

“I sense a dozen or so,” Maul said tilting his head, “I can hear some of them descending from the wall.

“We’ll take them together,” Obi-Wan said firmly.

But if Maul was listening, he made no acknowledgement. With a rolling lunge from his crouched position, Maul broke cover and began to fight. All Obi-Wan could hear was the sounds of blaster bolts being deflecting by a lightsaber, the screeching noise cutting through the sounds of battle and making the air hum with energy.

  
“Stars above,” Obi-Wan swore in irritation, also braking cover to aid Maul. _Why did they never listen..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ////Authors note////
> 
> In my mind I imagine that Maul's "comfortable position" in the back of the speeder, is sitting sideways with his legs hanging out over the side of the vehicle. Part of the larger headcanon that Maul does not sit properly in chairs. ever.


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, wow. Okay. Welcome back. My life has been a ride lately. BUT! Here is this. 
> 
> Violence warnings ahead. Stuff gets ahh, dark. 
> 
> Thank you as always for everyone being super nice and supportive. I'm going to try and make Sundays update days.   
> Also if you really want more Maul, I've been doing some prompts on my tumblr (the-son-of-dathomir), so if you would like to read those or request one, feel free to pop by a leave me a msg (anon is fine!).

Maul’s blade swung in large swooping arcs, deflecting any bolt aimed his way. With a well timed block, Maul managed to cause one bolt to ricochet off his lightsaber and back at the shooter. A howling noise from above indicated that the bolt had found its target. 

Maul stood in the middle of the desolate rock corridor. For that moment the Raiders’ assault from above had lessened, but the Sandpeople descending the rock face had just reached the ground. Three were advancing on Maul, and a few more were still scaling down the cliffside. 

Maul dropped into a fighting crouch, his eyes flicking quickly between his three opponents. They held weapons cannibalized from outdated force-pikes and vibrolances, ugly things which sparked and hissed plasma and electricity. The Sandpeople were brutal warriors, and Maul knew better than to underestimate them. 

The largest of the Raiders charged at Maul, the other two close on his heels. Maul held his ground, meeting his opponent's blow with his own. The large Raider’s weapon spat blue energy, some of it bypassing Maul’s defense and scoring him across the arms. But Maul’s lightsaber had the overwhelming advantage. Their weapons only locked for a second before Maul’s glowing blade cut right through his opponent’s weapon. More blue light spilled from it, splashing like a liquid against both Maul and the Raider. Where the blue sparks hit, cloth was dissolved and skin burned. Maul ignored the sensation, but the Raider screamed in agony, his entire chest steaming where the plasma had hit him.

Maul made a decisive slashing movement with his arms, his blade striking at the Raider’s legs. His opponent toppled to the ground, still writhing from the burns and now fatally maimed. 

But not dead.                       

As Maul fixed his stance, preparing for the other two Raiders to reach him, he allowed the dark side to wash over him. The downed Raider was bleeding fear, anger and hatred, and Maul basked in the sensation. The smell of blood and burnt flesh was thick in the air, and despite the bright suns now directly overhead the world felt dark. 

Maul engaged his next two foes. Somewhere nearby, he could hear the distinct hum of Obi-Wan’s lightsaber, deflecting the now renewed sniper shots from above. 

The pair of Raiders attacked, rushing to strike. Maul fought them both simultaneously for a moment, his dual ended weapon long enough to keep them both out of striking distance. Maul performed a succession of quick elaborate flourishes, forcing his opponents back and breaking any of their fighting rhythm. It was Maul’s turn to lunge at them, feinting at one- then reaching for the other. 

In a move almost too quick to see, Maul grabbed hold of one Raider, twisting his arm and forcing the hilt of his lightsaber under their chin. Maul held him out in front as a living shield against the final Raider. 

Maul’s legs buckled under the onslaught and the weight of holding up his struggling shield. The attacking Raider laid into its former companion, determined to cut through him and into Maul. The strikes came down heavy, and when Maul felt his shield go completely slack, he tossed the body aside. Ducking and rolling along the ground and out of the Raider’s strike distance. 

Quick to regain his feet, Maul reengaged. This Sandperson was a better fighter than the other two combined, he was light on his feet and skilful with his lance. Maul found himself forced to jump and dodge more than once in their duel. But with every second that passed, Maul could feel the weight of the dark side growing. The air felt damp and sticky with dark energies, leaking from the corpses and radiating off of Maul as he fought. 

Maul could hear more Raiders reaching the canyon floor, their weapons clashing against Obi-Wan’s saber. Above them, the occasional blaster bolt still hailed down from the few remaining shooters. They had to turn the tide now, before it was too late. 

Maul struck out at his opponent with renewed vigor. Scoring several solid strikes, and putting his enemy off balance. Seizing on the moment, Maul made a crippling blow to the Raider’s abdomen. In a well practiced slicing movement, Maul’s blade cut a long path up the the Raider’s stomach. Severing muscles and breaking through the tough tissues that held internal organs in place. Maul watched with satisfaction as his opponent collapsed- gutted, howling and still very much alive. Though not for long, not at the rate he was losing blood.

Maul stepped over the corpse, his sights now set on some retreating Raiders. They bore lightsaber burns, no doubt enemies Kenobi was letting flee. Maul had no such intentions. Maul reached out in the Force, grabbing for the weakest one. A few yards separated them, but as Maul stepped closer, his Force hold increased. 

The other Sandpeople had made it to the wall by now and were scrambling to scale it back to safety. Their lookouts and shooters already long gone when they saw that it was a losing battle. It was only the single Tusken Raider Maul held in a Force choke that was left.

Maul could feel the dark side envelope him, it had been so long since he had felt this connected to the Force. The ground under his feet vibrated with energy as the blood of his fallen enemies pooled across the rocks. The air stirred the with final desperate dying gasps of the Raider Maul choked with the Force. The whole world pulsed with raw emotions, fear and hate and anger. Maul could hear it in the rocks and the air, but also in his blood and in his ears as his hearts beat the same deafening rhythm.

But something else cut through. 

“Maul!”

Maul could hear Obi-Wan shouting, though it sounded dim and distant through the haze of dark energy. Maul ignored him, focusing only on his victim.

But when Obi-Wan shouted his name again, it cut through the haze with greater strength. Dragging Maul back to reality in an abrupt lurching way. 

“Maul- Stop!” Obi-Wan’s voice was clear to Maul now, he could sense the Jedi somewhere behind him. However, in response to the Jedi’s obvious distress, Maul only tightened his Force choke. Lifting his target ever so slightly off the ground as he did so.        

“Stop!” 

And this time, something happened. 

Obi-Wan’s command rushed through the Force. Maul felt it like freezing water, suddenly overwhelming him. Instantly he lost focus, and the near-dead Raider fell to the ground, released from Maul’s Force grip. Maul felt paralysed, his body unwilling, or unable, to move, the sensation not unfamiliar...

Maul was surprised. Surprised that it had taken Obi-Wan until now to tap into this Force connection. Though  _ right now _ was an incredibly inconvenient time for him to test it out. Maybe it was the excessive amount of dark side energy on the battlefield, or maybe Obi-Wan was just that angry- either way, the Jedi had finally embraced the connection they had forged on the floor of that cargo hold not so many days before. 

Sith philosophy wasn’t build around metaphors and good faith, when Maul told Obi-Wan he had won his service... that was something tangible. It was this connection in the Force, the one that tied Maul irrevocably to Obi-wan’s will- if he so chose to use it. And he had. 

  
But if Maul was surprised to feel the Force connection suddenly activate- Obi-Wan was even more so. 


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all!
> 
> So I *almost* made my update schedule (it's probably still sunday somewhere right?). 
> 
> Just a big shout out to you all, this fic just passed 200 kudos and will probably reach 3000 hits with his update. Thank you all so so much. 
> 
> If you're interested in my Maul fan art you can find it here the-son-of-dathomir.tumblr.com/tagged/my-art
> 
> Or if you would like to read some more Maul you can look here the-son-of-dathomir.tumblr.com/tagged/shannon-writes

Obi-Wan reeled, stumbling a few paces back. His mind racing as he tried to make sense of what had just happened.

In a sudden overwhelming way it felt like he was back on the cargo hold floor, his hands holding Maul down as he forced the life from his chest. The sickening feeling of dominance and power Obi-Wan had experienced in that moment returning to him now... and with it, all the stomach turning guilt and disgust that had plagued him since.

He had told himself, _insisted,_ that he was imagining it, that his unease was simply mind games. But that was a lie, whatever _this_ was, it was _very_ real. This connection in the Force was so strong that he could hold back a Sith lord with just his will. The thought was terrifying, if exciting in a twisted way.     

But even if Obi-Wan had wanted to, it wasn’t a power he could hold onto. The open connection was like a fire in his mind, impossibly hot and blinding. As quickly as he had inadvertently activated it, it ended.

Obi-Wan’s whole body shook, he could still feel threads of the dark side touching him. This was Sith magic, and Obi-Wan had never felt something so vile. It occurred to him that this was likely the power all Sith lords had used to keep their apprentices and subordinates in line. A power Obi-Wan had somehow found himself in possession of...

However, even with the release of the Force hold, Obi-Wan could still feel the connection. Subdued, lingering just below his conscious mind... and familiar? Obi-Wan couldn’t shake the sense that the connection had been there, though dormant, for much longer than he realized.              

              

Maul spun to face Obi-Wan, his autonomy now fully returned, his voice was a hiss of barely controlled rage.

“Why did you stop me!”

“They were retreating!” Obi-Wan’s response was angrier than he had intended, though he tried to sound controlled his emotions were still unchecked. “These Sandpeople were nothing more than highway robbers! They weren’t imperial agents- they didn’t know who we were!”

Maul stalked closer to Obi-Wan, still seething and hissing his words rather than shouting.

“They were trying to _kill us._ They deserved to _die._ ”

“They were no longer a threat! All you accomplished was drawing more attention to our presence here.” Obi-Wan tried and failed to make his words sound calm. His voice was still too loud, his emotions still too raw. He could hardly look around the battlefield, couldn't bring himself to looks at Maul’s various dismembered and diembolwed victims. He had been foolish, willfully ignorant of what he knew full well Maul was capable of. Now he was forced to face the truth.

“ _They were weak!”_

But Obi-Wan cut him off, unwilling to listen to Maul anymore. He didn’t even try to steady his voice this time, couldn’t suppress the intense emotions he felt.

“They didn’t deserve to be slaughtered like animals! Didn’t deserve this!” Obi-Wan gestured in frustration and disgust at the bloody scene around them. “They began retreating as soon as they saw we weren’t worth the trouble! All you have done is endanger our cover. Anyone could find these bodies, _or what's left of them.”_

To Obi-Wan’s surprise, Maul broke their eye contact first, glancing down and way. But Obi-Wan wasn’t foolish enough to accept that as a sign of remorse, something he doubted Mau was even capable of feeling.

“Your actions were reckless and this bloodshed was completely unnecessary! I won’t let you put our lives and our cover in danger for your cruel amusement and ego.” Obi-Wan knew he was shouting, but he didn’t care now. The words were coming faster than he could stop them. “Murdering these Sandpeople and making them suffer achieved _nothing._ Nothing but bolstering your childish pride. These Raiders weren’t a real threat! What chance did they ever have against us? What did you possibly gain from drawing out their deaths?”

Obi-Wan swung his arm in an angry gesture, caught up in the tirade he had begun.  But suddenly, he stopped. Whatever other grievances he was about to berate Maul with, died on his lips.

He felt it more in the Force than he saw it with his eyes, it was a brief well of panic and fear that radiated from Maul and out into the space between them.

Obi-Wan practically froze, blinking like he was suddenly seeing Maul for the first time. His head was down and his shoulders hunched, his body poised for... Obi-Wan glanced to his own hand that he realised was still upraised. He was still holding his lightsaber.

It felt like the air was suddenly depressurized. Obi-Wan hadn’t even noticed how much dark side energy had collected around him until this moment, how much he had let it affect him. He was still upset, angry even, but the whirlwind of emotions that had swept him up were now gone. _What was he doing?_

Obi-Wan lowered his hand slowly, making sure his lightsaber loudly clicked when he replaced it at his side. Taking a shaky breath, he tried to find some semblance of calm.

“We’ll talk about it later,” was all Obi-Wan managed to say. When Maul did not react Obi-Wan said, “Maul, look at me.”  

Maul’s gaze flitted up from the canyon floor to met Obi-Wan’s, though his eyes remained defiant, Obi-Wan felt it was more for show.

“You should finish what you started,” Maul said evenly, his eyes moving to the lightsaber at Obi-Wan’s side. “Take what's yours. I can’t stop you.”

“I’m not going to do that. I won't hurt you.” Obi-Wan had to fight to keep his voice as even as Maul’s. Obi-Wan didn't know what he could possibly say that would convince Maul of his intentions. And besides, something told him that no matter what he said, Maul wasn’t going to believe him so easily. Breathing deeply, Obi-Wan pushed on. “We need to try and bury these bodies and see if the speeder still works. We’re not safe out here.”  

Maul nodded, some of his tension visibly relieved. Whether or not he actually believed what Obi-Wan said was unclear, but for the moment he seemed to be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.  

“I’ll deal with the bodies. You should see if Owen’s awake yet.” Though subdued, Maul spoke with his normal cadence again.    

“Yes, alright.” Obi-Wan said relieved, glad to leave this conversation behind. Though he felt sure that this was far from the end of the discussion.


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the absence, life was kicking my ass a little. But I'm back and tried to make up for it with a longer chapter than normal.  
> So, here is this. Just a lot of fallout from that Raider fight. These guys are on rocky ground for now, hopefully they'll get themselves back to normal soon.

Obi-Wan practically collapsed behind the upturned speeder. The shaking he had barely contained while confronting Maul was finally taking its toll. His legs nearly giving out underneath him as he sank down next to Owen. Owen, for his part, was alive- though thoroughly concussed and still half-asleep. Obi-Wan laid a gentle hand on his head, willing soft energies to let him rest and heal a little longer.

He would have to wake him soon enough, but the less of the carnage Owen had to witness the better. When he regained consciousness, Obi-Wan would smile, tell him they hit an old mine from a long forgotten war, still buried in the ground. And Owen would believe him, because how could Obi-Wan _begin_ to explain what had actually happened.

 _What had actually happened._ Obi-Wan suppressed a shudder, still feeling tendrils of darkness hanging on the hems of his robes. He wanted to be angry, but to give into his emotions now risked a repeat of events. The dark side was still all but clawing at him, sensing his distress and hungry to latch onto any of his fear and hate.

Instead, Obi-Wan let the familiar numbness settle in. It was easy now, easy to not feel- how would he have survived this long otherwise? After the war, after Qui-Gon and Ahsoka _and_ \-              

Obi-Wan silenced his thoughts.

A good Jedi would let go of the sorrow, release his emotions back into the living Force, but it had been a long time since Obi-Wan truly considered himself a _good_ Jedi. For now he simply buried his thoughts, one more tragedy to be filed away with all the rest. Along with the half-hearted promise he had been making to himself for years, that he would process his grief when the world made sense again- when all the suffering could finally be justified. But Obi-Wan knew... knew that he wouldn’t live to see that day. And that even if he did- it could _never_ all be justified.

Owen groaned, breaking Obi-Wan’s reflection. Obi-Wan sniffed, aware that he was dangerously close to crying- a revelation that shocked him as much as it would anyone else.

Obi-Wan rubbed his face with a gloved hand, which did little besides smear more dirt and blood across his features. But it hid whatever evidence was left of his close brush with grief.

“Owen,” Obi-Wan said hoarsely, reaching a hand to hold the other man’s shoulder. “Are you alright?”

Owen coughed and sat up, his eyes darting around them in confusion.

“What happened?”

“We hit an ion mine...” Obi-Wan said, though his voice lacked the conviction he had intended. “It was all a... bit of a mess...” He finished weakly.

Owen nodded, too dazed to question Obi-Wan’s lie.           

“And your friend?” Owen asked concerned.

“Hurt, but alive,” Obi-Wan managed to say, though the mere mention of Maul made his stomach churn. “If you can stand, we need to see if we can get the speeder working again.”

Owen nodded, clumsily finding his footing and leaning heavily against the sideways speeder for support.  

While Owen righted himself, Obi-Wan stood and forced himself around to the other side of the speeder. He didn’t know what the battlefield would look like now, he hadn’t given Maul much time to dispose of the bodies- but he needed to know how many more lies to feed Owen.

To Obi-Wan’s surprise, the canyon floor was all but clear. Nothing could be done about the brown bloody marks, but beside that there was little trace of the fight. He caught Maul’s eye, who was slightly more dirt stained than before.

Reading Obi-Wan’s disbelief Maul said flatly, “You underestimate my talents- I know how to make my victims’ bodies disappear.”  

Obi-Wan nodded dully, if that had been an attempt to provoke him, it didn’t work.

“We’ll need your help flipping the speeder...” Obi-Wan gestured vaguely back at the vehicle.

It was Maul’s turn to silently nod in response.

____________

It didn’t take long to get the speeder right way up again. Between Obi-Wan and Maul, lifting the speeder was an easy enough task- though Maul was careful to hide his use of the Force in front of Owen.

Getting it running again was, however, another story.

The repulsors worked well enough to keep it hovering a few inches off the ground, giving Maul enough room to lay underneath it and get at the innards. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan and Owen tapped at the controls inside the vehicle. Occasionally trying the thrusters and turning over the engine when Maul thought he had found the problem. After a few false starts, finally the speeder came back to life, it's dashes and panels lighting up with a positive system check.

Maul rolled out from under the speeder, somehow more grime coated than before. From inside the speeder Obi-Wan only got a quick glance at him. His movements were stiff as he righted himself, wincing as he shifted from the ground to his feet. It was a fleeting glance however, Maul soon felt Obi-Wan’s gaze and straightened up, masking any sign of injury or discomfort.

Obi-Wan regretted what he had to do next.

“Look at that!” Owen said in awe, “where’d you learn to fix a speeder like that?”

“Surviving on Lotho Minor meant learning to salvage- or _be_ salvaged.” Maul grunted, leaning against the humming speeder. “I didn’t have a lot of choice.”

“Owen,” Obi-Wan cut in before that conversation went any further. “Thank you, _again,_ for everything. We couldn’t have made it this far without you.” Obi-Wan hesitated, he didn’t want to say the next part... “But you should go home now.”

Owen looked a little stunned, not sure what Obi-Wan meant. He tried to start a few sentences, before Obi-Wan continued.

“Take the speeder. We’ll be fine on our own, we’ll reach the safe house in a day or two on foot. You’ve done more than enough... and I can’t let you put yourself at risk for us any longer.” Obi-Wan pushed his words gently in the Force, he hated to do it, but he had too. He wouldn’t let anyone else die, and if nothing else, this attack proved that Obi-Wan couldn’t guarantee Owen’s safety.

“Well...” Owen said slowly, the gentle Force suggestion working its way into his mind. “As long as you’re sure... Promise to com me when you make it, I want to know you’re safe.”

“Yes, of course. As soon as we arrive.” Obi-Wan lied smoothly, though his voice stuck at the end when he caught Maul’s venomous glare. Obi-Wan quickly returned focus to Owen, going through the motions of gentle shoulder touches and whispered good wishes before finally extricating himself from the speeder.

It didn’t take long for Owen to maneuver the speeder so it faced the exit of ravine, finding a clear path through the rock debris and other hazards. With a few quick taps at the controls, and final wave, Owen began his slow journey home. Leaving behind Maul, Obi-Wan and their few supplies, to complete the journey on their own.

It didn't take long for even the hum of the speeder to be lost from ear shot.

____________

Obi-Wan had the distinct impression that Maul was _trying_ to suppress his irritation, and that the waves he was causing in the Force was only the overflow he couldn’t contain. No doubt he was furious that Obi-Wan had let a perfectly good speeder go, that after he had berated _Maul_ for poor tactical choices, Obi-Wan was now the one forcing them to walk vulnerable through open terrain. All because of some misplaced guilt and a Jedi martyr complex.

But if Maul had grievances, he kept them to himself. An aftereffect of their recent confrontation, no doubt. And while Obi-Wan appreciated not having to defend his decision, Maul’s silence still didn’t sit well...    But for now he would take it. Besides, Owen was long gone in the speeder, nothing would be gained from arguing.

Maul shouldered his share of the supplies, Obi-Wan couldn’t tell if his huff was from pain or just annoyance. He supposed there was a fair chance it was both.

“We can rest before we start,” Obi-Wan said diplomatically.

“Your call,” Maul brushed him off. If there was something worse than Maul _disagreeing_ with everything Obi-Wan did, somehow it was him being indifferent

Obi-Wan sighed in resignation.

“We’ve been here too long. We should at least get far enough away that if any Sandpeople decide to return, we are too distant to be tracked.” Obi-Wan lifted his pack from the ground, shouldering it and adjusting his stance to its weight. “We’ll stop when we reach cover.” Obi-Wan left the words open, giving Maul a final chance to comment. Instead, Maul all but ignored him, pulling what was left of his hood up and around his face. The winds were starting to pick up again, and soon the sand would follow.

 

The climb out of the ravine was treacherous. While the newly fallen rubbled provided a gentler slope, it also made their footholds more precarious. Even with the Force to steady themselves, each step came with the chance of the debris coming lose, losing their balance and twisting their legs. It was slow going, with Obi-Wan in the lead, testing each footfall before putting his full weight down. Despite his caution, there was still a lot of stumbling and a few near falls. But eventually, they succeeded in escaping the ravine. Obi-Wan cast a quick look back and down, he could just make out the blood darkened pools on the ravine floor and the near black marks where blaster bolts had ricocheted.

He wished he felt like he was leaving it all behind. That when he turned away from the sight it would be gone. Instead, Obi-Wan had the distinct impression that he was carrying the worst of that battle with him. That even though in a day or two the sand would bury any evidence that they had been there at all- it wouldn’t be that easy for him to forget...

With a final struggling step, Obi-wan made it to solid, though sandy, Tatooine ground. Maul was close behind him, breathing heavier than Obi-Wan thought normal, but still showing no immediate signs of bad injury, or at least none Obi-Wan could detect from sight alone.

 “Just beyond that ridge,” Obi-Wan pointed towards the horizon, “there should be a valley of rocky needles, and surely some place with enough cover we can stop.” Obi-Wan tried to catch Maul’s gaze, to gain any insight into his thoughts. But the shadows from his hood were deep and his mind was walled off to Obi-Wan.

But maybe that was for the better. Maul was like a conduit to the dark side, and Obi-Wan had already waded further into that darkness today than he ever had before. It was as though simply being in the same place as Maul amplified Obi-Wan’s own fears and internal dissonance. Like his world made less and less sense the longer they were together. It would be simpler if Maul was merely this, a dark shadow, unknowable and distant. A monstrous product of the dark side... and not the sentient being whom Obi-Wan had just begun to understand...

But things hadn’t been simple for a very long time. And despite what had happened, despite _everything_ that had happened, if Obi-Wan was sure of one thing, it was that he was doing the right thing this time. It wasn’t going to be easy- but it would be right.  

Obi-Wan let go of his breath, trying to force a calmness he didn’t feel.

“Are you _coming?”_ Maul hissed from a few yards ahead of him, already making his way in the direction of the ridge.

“Yes- yes,” Obi-Wan stuttered, adjusting his pack so he could hasten to catch up with Maul. But  he couldn’t shake the feeling that something remained off about Maul, perhaps his injuries were paining him more than he let on. If so, Obi-Wan decided he would halt their march as soon as they reached reasonable cover. They _both_ needed at least a bacta patch and a stim-shot.   


	33. Chapter 33

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! I hope everyone survived Twin Suns last week (and the Zero Hour tonight!). 
> 
> Thank you for your patience and continued support as I worked out this chapter!! We're still not at this safehouse, but Maul and Obi-Wan are safe for the night. 
> 
> Also a huge shout out to Sammy, who has so graciously been helping me edit this chapter! If you see semicolons that's all them! (I don't know how those things work haha) Check them out at recycledtrashboysith.tumblr.com !!!! 
> 
> As always, if you want to see what I'm drawing and writing when I'm not here, head over to my tumblr (the-son-of-dathomir.tumblr.com). 
> 
> My inbox is always open!

Despite Obi-Wan’s best intentions of allowing them to rest soon, the desert had other plans in store.

The sands they attempted to navigate were deep and soft, sinking their feet well above the ankles with each step. The crest that had seemed small and not far off was turning out to be much larger and much further away than anticipated. After several hours of agonizingly slow progress, Tatooine’s first sun was finally touching the horizon, making the landscape around them look red and indistinct.   

For awhile Maul stayed in the lead, but eventually Obi-Wan overtook him. Obi-Wan still couldn’t place what he sensed from Maul. He didn’t stagger or limp, but nonetheless Maul’s movements gave Obi-Wan the distinct impression that he was in a lot of pain. Obi-Wan would offer to help, but he was sure any attempt would only be coldly rebuffed. The best he could do was get them to shelter and let them both rest for the night.

When the tops of the needles finally broke into view, Obi-Wan let out an audible sigh of relief. It was just in time too; the first of Tatooine's suns had nearly dropped below the horizon and the second was well on its way to setting. Obi-Wan wasn’t sure what desert creatures came out at night on Tatooine, and he didn’t fancy finding out. 

“Almost there,” Obi-Wan said, mostly to himself. He didn't expect an answer from Maul, so he wasn’t surprised when he didn't get one.

Obi-Wan paused when he reached the top of the crest to look at the valley below. It really was a forest of needles, tall rocky pillars reaching several dozen feet into the air, clustered together and stretching out for miles into the distance. They were tall and dense enough that Obi-Wan couldn't make out any visible endpoint. They would be safe here, for a while at least. Long enough to sleep and to eat before they started what would hopefully be the last leg of their journey.                    

There was a little bit of clambering to get down the descending side of the crest. The incline just steep enough that occasionally with the wrong step gravity would take over, pulling down too far and too fast. Obi-Wan could only focus on his own footing, but behind him he occasionally heard Maul huff and stumble. Obi-Wan assumed he was equally struggling with their decent. 

Before long, they were on flat sandy soil again, the needles now towering above them like ancient castle spires from some long lost civilization.The world felt dimmer this side of the crest, Tatooine's suns now setting on a horizon they couldn't see. The space between the needles was shadowy, and growing darker as the last sun rays dimmed.

Obi-Wan hesitated. He was exhausted and longed to set up camp for the night, but the foreboding forest unsettled his already anxious mind. He anticipated his pause would elicit some biting commentary from Maul, but when he glanced over his shoulder he was surprised to see that Maul wasn’t paying him any attention at all. Instead, his eyes looked distant and unfocused, unconcerned with Obi-Wan or even with their present surroundings.

“Maul,” Obi-Wan started, surprised by the vacancy in what were normally piercing eyes.

Maul glanced at him quickly, some of the fog lifting, but even his voice lacked its typical edge. 

“What, Kenobi?”

Obi-Wan wasn’t sure what he had meant to say and fumbled with the words for a moment.

“I was just going to say we can stop soon. The needle forest should be enough cover...” Obi-Wan trailed off as Maul looked away from him, clearly uninterested. 

___________

True to what Obi-Wan said, shelter was plentiful in the forest. Natural rock formations created all manner of unusual cracks and caves suitable for a temporary camp. They ventured far enough in that it felt safe, but also not so far that they lost their way. In the growing twilight, merely a few yards in the forest already felt deeper and stranger than it had from the outside.   

Eventually Obi-Wan stopped them by a cluster of needles, the rocks having grown just so as to make decent shelter for the night. It required some ducking to get to the center of the cluster, but once inside there was plenty of room for them and their supplies. The needles forming walls on all sides, while leaving the sky above them visible. 

Almost instantly Obi-Wan flopped down to the ground, discarding his pack and leaning against the nearest wall of rock for support. The exhaustion he had been fighting finally touching his mind, causing his body to slump and his eyes to close. If he hadn’t also been uncomfortably hungry, he may have simply fallen asleep there and then.

Maul distanced himself to the other side of the enclosure, while the space between them was yards at most, Obi-Wan felt their distance was much greater. 

Obi-Wan busied himself rummaging through his pack, shifting his way through the extra clothes and blankets down to the bottom where crunchy packets of dried and powdered nutrients were stored.

The packet felt familiar in his hands.  _ So many nights _ spent much like this. He ran his thumb absently across the cog insignia, trying to remember a time when he had been proud to boast the symbol. It dawned on him that it had been a very,  _ very  _ long time since anything about the Republic had stirred anything in him besides worry and guilt. 

Now more than ever. 

With a rip he split the packaging, the dry bars of foodstuffs falling out into his hands. He knew from experience they were tasteless and an unpleasant texture, but filling nonetheless. As a general he had always had the option to commission the better grade rations. However, like most Jedi he had declined the luxury, though that felt performative in retrospect. Obi-Wan was sure that the men who served under him had lived the entirety of their short lives eating nothing but the stuff. And while Obi-Wan had a brief glimpse into their lives during field missions,  _ he _ always had the promise of a home to return to. Jedi life was simple, but warm and tender, not like the sterile barracks the clones had called home. A word, Obi-Wan thought sadly, that his men only knew an approximation of.                

Obi-Wan ate the food rations in silence, finding some small comfort in the taste. At least this was familiar, this leftover fragment of his old life. 

Finally, Obi-Wan glanced across the camp to Maul and was struck once again by the almost glassy look of his features. The former Sith was sitting on his heels, fists curled tightly on top of his knees, eyes fixated unseeingly on some distant point of ground ahead of him.    

If Maul was a Jedi, Obi-Wan almost could have written the posture off as meditative. But Obi-Wan had seen Maul mediate, and it was nothing like this. The obvious tension in his body and the faint mental dissonance wasn’t conducive to any kind of internal reflection- Sith or Jedi.    

While they had been together for only a few short days, Obi-Wan thought he had witnessed the full range of Maul’s moods... but this was something new. Obi-Wan had assumed Maul’s anger and violence were the products of his upbringing. But seeing him like this... Obi-Wan wasn’t so sure that was the worst of it.

“Maul...” Obi-Wan finally said. He would have liked nothing more than to ignore the Sith for the rest of the night, to talk to him in the morning after sleep had a chance to clear his head. Obi-Wan felt that his latent emotions were still barely contained after the fight in the ravine, and after what had happened there... he wasn’t sure he could count on keeping them under control now. But something was wrong, and Obi-Wan was nothing if not compassionate. 

Maul glanced up to him, a flicker of recognition in otherwise distant eyes. Though whatever mental haze he was in didn’t stop him from growling at Obi-Wan.

“What, Kenobi?” 

“Did you eat yet?” It felt like such an odd question to ask, but as Obi-Wan studied Maul closer, he realized the other hadn’t really moved since they pitched camp.

“I-” Maul started, but faltered slightly, “I haven’t- I don’t...” But if there was vulnerability in his voice it quickly hardened. “I’ll eat when I’ve earned it.” 

The statement was said with such hostile finality; it took Obi-Wan a moment to even process what Maul had said. And then another moment to control his own incredulous response. Somehow, it still came out near incoherent.

“Maul, why would you- we don’t...” Obi-Wan’s hands moved in frustration, as though he could communicate what he wanted through a vague wave of his arm better than words. “It’s not like that any more,” he finally said, hoping that encompassed everything he desperately wanted to say.  

But Maul wasn’t having it. Obi-Wan still had the sense that Maul wasn’t totally present, that his mind was elsewhere. Gone, however, was the vacant passive expression, replaced now with the cold and chilling anger Obi-Wan had already seen too much of today. 

“I am not  _ weak  _ like your Jedi. I will not be coddled like an apprentice. Those who do not succeed, do not eat. And if they die, it's because they were not fit to survive. I failed – and your Jedi code might stop you from seeking retribution, but mine doesn’t.” 

There was ring to Maul’s words that made them sound rote, like something he had practiced and repeated many times before this – as though he was a padawan repeating a history lesson at the Temple. 

Obi-Wan went to argue, but Maul cut him off.

“You’re upset with me.” It was a statement, not a question. A challenge for Obi-Wan to deny the truth. “You don’t mask your darker emotions as well as you think you do.”  

Obi-Wan opened his mouth like he was going to object, but stopped. Any other time Obi-Wan would have assumed that Maul’s intentions were simply to upset him, to get a rise or reaction, but the sincerity in Maul’s words gave Obi-Wan pause. 

“I am upset,” Obi-Wan said slowly, the words feeling foreign to him. He couldn’t recall the last time he had ever verbalized his emotions, admitted to another sentient that he felt _anything._ But he pushed on, the next words already on his lips. “I’m angry- but not at you.”     

Maul looked unmoved, not yet dissuaded that he wasn’t the object of Obi-Wan’s displeasure, that his remarks weren’t merely Jedi platitudes to keep the peace. 

“You should be.” Maul’s voice was still hard. “You should finish what you started." 

Maul’s words dragged Obi-Wan’s mind back to the ravine, summoning memories of the difficult moments right after the fight when Obi-Wan had unwittingly let the dark side touch his words and actions. Now Obi-Wan had to reconcile the aftermath of that mistake, attempt to mend the fragile trust he knew he had damaged.  

“Maul,” Obi-Wan tried to find the balance in his voice, firm but not without compassion. “I can forgive you your tactical errors. Your strategy, whatever its shortcomings, isn’t what's concerning me.” 

For the first time he felt like he had Maul’s attention, though the new intensity that Maul stared him down with wasn’t exactly helping him collect his thoughts as he blundered on. 

“The Sandpeople... they didn’t have to die. All they did was cross my path, and they are worse for it. Just like everyone else.” Obi-Wan hesitated, unsteady as he spoke these half-formed thoughts and fragments of fears he hadn’t consciously put voice to until now. “I’m upset because I foolishly thought that exile to the Force forsaken deserts of Tatooine would put enough distance between myself and the violence – only to realize I brought the violence with me...”

Maul remained silent. While his own agitation had not settled, he expressed something akin to patience as he waited for Obi-Wan to finish his thoughts. He was curious, if nothing else. 

“I doubt we shall ever see eye to eye on the  _ ethics  _ of killing,” Obi-Wan continued, his voice regaining some of its natural cadence. “But I won’t let this happen again. No one else should be hurt because me – and that includes you.” 

Maul’s eyes flashed a little, the distance finally gone. Obi-Wan wasn’t sure if he had convinced him of anything, but at least Maul seemed willing to accept that Obi-Wan bore him no ill will at the moment.     

“Now, what else have you done to yourself,” Obi-Wan asked calmly, his eyes searching for the other tell-tale signs of Maul’s self-inflicted punishments.  

Finally, Maul sighed. Some of the tension Obi-Wan had felt was starting to dissipate. Maul looked irritated, but it was a welcome change from the vacant browbeaten look of before. With a shrug, Maul stretched the muscles in his arms and chest, wincing as the movement made its way across his ribs.       

“Alright,” Obi-Wan nodded. He wasn't going to make Maul ask for the help. It was enough that Maul had shown him where the worst injuries were. “Food and medicine... anything else?” 

Obi-Wan was already moving towards Maul’s discarded luggage to search for the needed supplies. Maul glanced to the pack briefly before glancing away again. Obi-Wan wasn't sure what the look had meant until his hands fell around the pack straps. He tried to move it and couldn’t – not at first anyway. It took a two-handed grip and a strong pull to move it at all. It explained the oddness of Maul’s steps Obi-Wan had noticed when walking behind him.  _ How  _ he had even carried the weight this far was stunning.   

Obi-Wan let out a controlled breath, silently promising to be more aware. He should have realized his own pack was filled with nothing but spare blankets and rations bars, that the weight had been distributed so unevenly.

This, at least, was an easy fix. He would reorganize their supplies before they left in the morning. For now, Obi-Wan pulled out the first meal kit his hands fell on and remnants of their ship’s medical supplies. 

When Obi-Wan turned back to Maul, he was relieved to see the other sitting more comfortably, no longer the contrite formal kneeling. Obi-Wan took a small gamble, tossing the package of bacta swatches at him and was rewarded by Maul’s quick catch. Focused, aware, present. No longer lost in whatever past trauma he had been remembering, whatever other punishments he had endured for failure. 

“Are you going to need help?” Obi-Wan asked conversationally, willing the heaviness of their previous discussion to evaporate.

“I’m fully capable of applying a bandage, Kenobi.” Maul growled, shrugging out of his dirt stained robes. As they fell away Obi-Wan caught sight of the damage.

Obi-Wan was learning that it took alot for surface damage to even be visible under Maul’s bright skin and dark tattoos. But where Maul had been hurt from the speeder crash was painfully obvious. 

A large swath of skin across his side and over his ribs was covered in small abrasions, the skin torn up and sticky with the beginning of scabs. However, all around the wounds was a dark flowering bruise that told Obi-Wan broken ribs lay beneath. Fortunately the bacta patches would do as good as anything else. The cuts and scrapes would heal over night. The ribs would take longer, but they were survivable. And, stars willing, they would be at the safe house by next nightfall. 

Obi-Wan watched as Maul carefully placed the slightly damp patch along the worst of the abrasion, hissing air out of his teeth as he did. Obi-Wan knew from many an experience that the patches stung.  

Absently, Obi-Wan pulled the tab on the side of the food kit, feeling the plastene tray growing warm in his hands. This, Obi-Wan did not try to toss to Maul. Instead, he moved close enough to hand the tray to him, which Maul accepted without any ceremony. 


	34. Chapter 34

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello once more! Thank you as always for tuning in, I have for you a very a special chapter for you this week! 
> 
> And by very special chapter I mean Maul has traumatic flashbacks, so uh, just prepare yourself.
> 
> Once again Sammy is an absolute angel of a human being who has helped edit this and deserves nothing less than my deepest gratitude and thanks! You can find them at recycledtrashboysith.tumblr.com!
> 
> Please enjoy and really truly thank you all so much. Talking to you guys and writing E&A has really been the highlight of this past year for me. <3

Maul hadn’t slept well in a very long time, and tonight was no different. The coldness in the air and the hardness of the ground were familiar discomforts, and even the distant wailing of raiders weren’t the source of his unease as he tried to force his mind to settle into unconsciousness.  

Maul often meditated before sleep. It was an attempt to strengthen the psychic barriers that were his only defense while he was unconscious. But even his best wards were not enough to defend against the darkness that plagued him nightly.  

Sometimes the dark side manifested itself as simple nightmares, pulling the worst of his horrors to the surface as he slept. Occasionally they dragged him so deeply into the illusion that Maul was unable to tell when he returned to waking reality. But more often, Maul relived the lingering effects of past intentional intrusions into his subconscious. Though more than a decade had gone by, the ghosts of his master’s Force manipulations still haunted him.   

The last time he had slept without fear felt like a lifetime ago, when he was naive enough to believe that his master only had dominion over his waking world. Now, he wondered how he had ever been so young or so foolish... 

In his earliest years as an apprentice, Maul had to rely on speed and skill alone. While the acrobatics necessary for Juyo came easily to him, the strength and ferocity did not. The weight behind his blows was lacking and he couldn’t muster the force necessary to break through even basic defenses. Though he trained endlessly, his was not a species that matured quickly. 

Not dissimilar to humans, there was a stagnant time in his adolescent growth. During this period, he was constantly outmatched by opponents simply larger than himself. Despite near-instant reflexes and unparalleled technique, he lacked the physical strength required to deal a finishing blow.

It was not until he had been allowed to return from Nar Shaddaa that his body began to catch up with his skill. He only noticed it himself after weeks of constant changes to his training droids, increasing their levels each time to match his own. His new strength finally became apparent to him when he realized the training regimens he had struggled to maintain only months earlier suddenly provided little challenge. 

Though he had already reached his full height, only now could he finally see where lean muscles had filled out his otherwise slight frame. His new physical strength initially made him feel indestructible; he allowed his mind to wander for the first time, to imagine himself as a true Lord of the Sith.

With his physical growth also came increased stamina and resilience. Once his training droids had caught up with him, they started to attack with increased lethality. Blasts from stun rifles and strikes from practice sabers were now nearly as deadly as their real counterparts. But despite the increase in pain, when Maul was unfortunate enough to be struck by an attack, he found the effects less crippling. Blasts and burns that would have floored his younger self were now only minor inconveniences. Pain that used to hinder his abilities now only made him stronger.    

For the first time, the Sith mantras felt like more than tools to help him focus. He had gained strength, he had gained power, and now he could feel his chains beginning to fall away.                                    

However, that blissful confidence was short lived.

He was impatient and eager to test his new powers. And when the opportunity arose on his next mission, Maul took it. Killing the target he had been assigned only to monitor. The ease of the fight and euphoria from the kill only solidified his misplaced confidence, strengthened his delusional belief that he was indestructible.

Maul knew he would face retribution on his return – that his master would not take kindly to his insubordination. But with his new found strength, what punishment could he not endure?      

Maul regretted ever having asked such a question. 

He should have known when he left the debriefing on his feet and not his knees that something truly horrible was in store. His master’s apparent disinterest in the events of his mission was merely a facade.

It wasn’t until several weeks later that the true consequences of his disobedience became apparent. That was when the nightmares started.

At first, Maul didn’t make the connection to the new and bizarre dreams that began to wake him in the middle of the night. But it wasn't fright or terror that found him sitting up in cold sweats, rather the immense discomfort that didn’t always fade after waking – the sensations only dreams could produce, like his skin splitting and peeling from his bones, the burning and itching as though insects had infested his flesh, or worms eating his corpse while he was still alive. Each nightmare was more vivid and more painful, as though he was being pulled deeper into the dreamworld with each night. 

While the nightmares started as mere inconveniences, the effects only grew more intense with time. Maul found that, when he did sleep, he couldn’t be sure when he would wake. One dream had kept him trapped for an entire day, unable to pull himself back to reality and out of the nightmare. Even after having slept for so long, Maul would wake more exhausted than before.

Maul started setting medical droids to wake him. He equipped them with stim shots to shock him back to the land of the living, but even they failed sometimes. Finally, Maul simply stopped. Sleeping felt more like torture than rest. 

Maul waited anxiously for the day his master would finally acknowledge the abuse. He was eager to receive whatever final punishment awaited him, if it meant an end to the dreams. But Sidious did not call on him. The distance was normal; his master was often busy with his own devices. Maul was expected to remain in the Coruscant compound and continue his training, but that grew more difficult by the day. Mediation had now replaced sleep, a weak alternative but the best he had. At least in the semi-conscious state he could fight off the nightmares and allow his body to rest.

But it wasn’t enough. 

It was going on months since Maul’s insolence on the mission without any sort of reprieve. His training only grew more difficult as he felt his body deteriorating.

Without sleep, he wasn't healing as he should. Every muscle burned from the thousands of small tears his training caused. His head ached like his skull was split, so distracting he couldn’t focus to channel any Force abilities. 

He was useless in training; the droids now programmed to all but kill him struck him down each time. Maul was lucky to get in a few strikes before his limbs gave out and he collapsed.                         

Maul would have felt horror if his mind weren’t already on fire. He had been struck down yet again by the assassin droid he was dueling, but this time he couldn’t rise. Overhead he could just see the droid raining down a final blow across his back. The training saber, sparking with electricity, left what would no doubt be a substantial burn. But Maul barely felt it. Every nerve was already on fire, every fiber of his being ached. He shut his eyes, allowing the wretched dreams to take him if it meant he could finally rest. There was no difference now. The nightmare worms that ate his flesh were real; they were already here. 

He felt his body heaving, spasming with muted cries he couldn’t even muster through the pain. He pulled himself up into a hunched wounded position on the floor, his head down practically against the training mat, when finally something cut through the pain.

Maul tried to form the words he wanted, but even the simple task of speaking was too much. What came out was little more than a whimper.

“Master,  _ please _ ...”

He couldn’t even raise his head to look, but he knew that Sidious was towering above him, cruel and dispassionate.    

Until now, Maul had borne every one of Sidious’s punishment in silence. His master had no mercy to beg for, and he would rather die than give him the satisfaction. But with no end in sight, Maul’s desperation got the better of him. The pain that rendered him incoherent was all that stopped him from pleading further. 

The rest of the world dimmed as Maul’s ears filled with the screech and whine of radio static. His vision, which had consisted of little more than the mat on the floor and the edge of his master’s boots, was going hazy and red. But when Sidious spoke, it cut through the noise, speaking directly into Maul’s mind.   

“Never forget that I made you what you are; I can just as easily unmake you. You are not indestructible. In fact, you are very easily broken.”

Maul didn't know if he made any verbal response, but he remembered pouring all his obedience into their Force connection, releasing all the reservations he had ever harboured, giving all that he could give. He knew he would sacrifice every last shred of autonomy if it would make the pain stop – if the nightmare he had been living in would finally end. 

He could feel his master watching him a moment longer, a final reminder that it would only be over when he decided. 

Maul wasn’t sure what he was hit with. It felt like hilt of his master’s lightsaber, but it could have simply been the Force. Whatever it was, Maul felt the blow crash across the top of his head hard enough that he wondered if all this had all simply been the lead up to his master disposing of him once and for all. 

It wasn’t until days later when Maul awoke, after being granted the dreamless sleep he had begged for, that he realized that he was still alive. However, if that was meant to be a relief, Maul didn’t feel it.

Those nightmares lingered, tucked into the corners of his mind. They resurfaced when he was at his weakest, at his most vulnerable. They always haunted him, threatening to drag him back in. The fear that one night he would sleep and never be able to wake, caught inexorably in the hellscape his master has designed for him so long ago, never abated.   

Suffice it to say, Maul hadn’t slept well in a very long time, and tonight promised to be no different.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (plot twist next chapter is more traumatic flashbacks. Maul is not out of the weird needle forrest yet!)


	35. Chapter 35

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So due to my own poor time management, it's a longer chapter this week! 
> 
> You're getting some long overdue tender moments between Obi-Wan and Maul, but not before we get out of Maul's nightmares. 
> 
> Lite spoilers for the most recent Darth Maul comic ahead! (and some references to Twilight of the apprentice and the Darth Bane trilogy!) 
> 
> Thank you Sammy for helping edit again this week! You're a treasure! (find them at recycledtrashboysith.tumblr.com!)
> 
> And thanks to everyone who read, kudo'd, and commented!!!! It means the world to me and I love you all <3

After nearly an hour of intense focus, Maul forced himself to sleep, his mind only dimly aware that he was dreaming. 

It wasn’t the nightmare he always feared would return, but it was a familiar landscape. 

The ancient Sith architecture of Malachor rose up around Maul – not the broken ruins he had witnessed on his own trip there years before, but rather the majestic structures of the Sith at their height. Archways and pillars led him winding down into the temple proper. Every stone was etched with symbols of power, pulsing red with the energy that saturated each one. 

Maul could feel the presence of long dead Sith all around him. Some were merely footnotes in the Sith’s long history, but other powers that lingered here filled Maul with awe and terror. These were true Lords of the Sith who had come here to be buried, their tombs were nexuses of magic and knowledge for those who dared enter. 

These weren’t his memoires. Malachor was now little more than a pile of rubble, the magic long since faded and the tombs well-looted. He had never walked these halls when the Force still pulsed in the air and the dark side itself held the stones in place, but generations of Sith before him had. 

These were their memories, the ones Maul had absorbed on that fateful trip.

Over the years, Maul had explored this temple in many a dream. He had marveled at the secrets hidden within the temple while accompanied by the shadows and wraiths of Sith who, though they had died well before his birth, could still talk to him and offer bits of wisdom and fragmented insights.

But Maul could not wander forever. 

Outside the walls of the temple came the first cries. The unmistakable sound of lightsabers scraping against each other sent vibrations through the Force as the crystals held within clashed.

The walls would hold at first. The temple had been built for defense. It was a stronghold of the Sith, but the Jedi army that attacked was large and well-equipped. Their so-called Army of Light was an unmatched force in the galaxy that even the Sith Empire could not withstand.

Maul ran. The walls around him were collapsing, the temple crumbling beneath his feet even as he sprinted to the top of the pyramid. Stones were falling into the abyss even before he reached the next step. The dreamscape ripped at its seams, revealing the inky darkness between the illusions his mind had created.      

Around him, the death of the Sith vibrated in the air, thousands of lords and warriors falling beneath Jedi blades. Their lives became echoes that Maul could still hear screaming.  The hate of a thousand Sith filled Maul's chest. Many years ago his master had bid him breathe the dead embers that hung heavy in the air of Malachor. The ashes forever remaining in his lungs, keeping him forever connected to this place of death and defeat – this graveyard of murdered Sith.

Maul didn't always make it to the top of the temple before the dream descended into pure madness. In many previous iterations he had been caught in the collapsing temple, crushed and suffocated as the walls around him crumbled. This time, he made it to the top. In the distance below the temple, Maul watched the battle rage – not just this battle, but the eternal battle between the Jedi and the Sith. It was a fight that had raged across centuries and star systems, and he felt it all: every defeat and every victory, the glories of the ancient Sith and the devastating defeat that had come at the foot of this temple. 

Though the Sith would rise stronger than ever from his battle, it wasn't without its losses.

Maul watched, as awed as he was the first time he had clambered all the way here to witness the culmination of these memories he had been imparted. 

The temple was more than a tomb or a fortress, it was a weapon. The whole structure designed to channel the dark side, pulsing with energies ready to be harnessed and unleashed. And that was exactly what the Sith intended to do. 

It was a ritual so large in size and scope that it hadn’t been performed in centuries, and hadn’t ever been attempted since. Dozens of Sith Lords encircled the point of the pyramid, the focus of the weapon. Maul could see their energies flowing through the air,  physically manifesting as light and sparks. The super weapon grew bright and violent as it reached its full potential. 

Maul braced himself for what happened next, for when the weapon activated and everything on Malachor died. 

Light and heated exploded from pyramid. The bodies of the Sith Lords conducting the spell evaporated while their energies remained trapped by the ritual. 

Maul felt their pain, and the pain of every Sith caught in the blast. Their souls were ripped from mortal shells, leaving behind only the petrified corpses that still littered Malchor to this day. Stone bodies caught mid-scream, hands raised as shields against the blast. 

No one survived the blast, not the Sith and not the Jedi.

Maul shuddered as the memories continued to flood his dreams. In his mind he died a thousands deaths; through a thousand pairs of eyes he watched the sky lit up as the super weapon activated. 

Even while asleep, Maul’s instincts told him to run and fight. The impulses caused his body to thrash and spasm against the thin mat between him and the ground. Even these violent movements weren’t enough to wake him from the dream. 

But an unusual weight on his shoulder was. 

Maul’s body acted on reflex, striking out in a wild swing. His fingers curled into claws, ready to hit what ever was in range. 

To Obi-Wan’s credit, he had anticipated as much and was well-distanced from Maul when he woke him with the Force push. 

Maul breathed heavily, eyes darting wildly as he caught up with his surroundings: awake and on Tatooine, still housed under the needles... Obi-Wan watching him with concern. 

With no immediate danger, Maul dropped his raised claws and allowed himself to ease out of the defensive crouch he had scrambled to upon being woken so abruptly.

“ _ What do you want?” _ Maul hissed. Obi-Wan was still watching him, but Maul was surprised to see the how uneasy Obi-Wan looked, almost pained. 

“I-” Obi-Wan started, running his hand against his hair and wincing like he was injured. “Maul, what was  _ that?”  _

Maul only returned a confused look, his mind still partially lost on Malachor. 

“The- that temple. Maul, what happened?” Obi-Wan finally managed, looking almost as lost and bewildered as Maul felt. 

But the pieces were starting to come together. 

“Malachor,” Maul finally said, “It was a Sith temple.” 

Obi-Wan nodded; he looked pale. Maul wondered how much of the dream Obi-Wan had experienced, how much of the pain he had felt. 

“But- why am I seeing it?” Obi-Wan finally asked when Maul offered no further explanation.  

Maul narrowed his eyes, searching the Jedi’s face for any trick or deception. All that he saw was honest confusion and worry.

“You still don’t understand, do you? You still don’t fully grasp what  _ this  _ is.” Maul gestured vaguely to the space between them. 

“I think I’m starting to, but why don’t you explain it to me.” Obi-Wan’s voice was steady, but Maul could hear the reservation.

Maul sighed. He relaxed back down onto the sleeping mat, still exhausted from the fitful sleep and trying day but aware that Kenobi wouldn’t be easily dissuaded.  

“Surely the Jedi have,” Maul waved his hand as he tried to find the words, “Force bonds? Something that can link two minds?”

“Sometimes,” Obi-Wan admitted, “but they’re mostly an anomaly. Having a Force bond with another Jedi isn’t unheard of, but the council disapproved... They worried it was a sign of  _ attachment.”  _ __

Maul snorted, “The Sith have no such concerns. Force bonds aren’t  _ emotional,  _ they’re practical. Imagine,” Maul paused to collect his thoughts, “a connection more powerful than any holo transmitter, quicker data relay than the most advanced navicomputer, the galaxy’s most effective slave collar. That's what  _ this  _ is.” Again Maul gestured at the air between them, the invisible connection they shared. 

Obi-Wan nodded cautiously. It was hard to imagine a Force bond without the love and trust that seemed to so naturally accompany them. A connection stripped of all the tenderness and caring he had experienced with Anakin. 

Obi-Wan tried to silence those thoughts before they drifted too far. The dead space in his mind where his bond with Anakin used to reside was still too raw, like a blackhole threatening to swallow him if he got too close. 

“Does it hurt?” Obi-Wan asked after a moment, to which Maul only tilted his head in confusion. “The bond,” Obi-Wan went on. “Your mind; it’s not open to me. When the connection activates, it forces its way through your mental barriers... That must hurt?”

Maul shrugged and said dismissively, “A small price.”   

Obi-Wan shook his head, still trying to wrap his mind around what Maul had told him. 

“I don’t even know how I tapped into it,” Obi-wan said quietly, “I didn’t intend to...” 

But Maul was uninterested in Obi-Wan’s weak apology.

“I don’t know how it works on your side of the link,” Maul said flatly, “I’ve never held the leash, only worn the collar. But it's a powerful connection. You can demand anything and I can't refuse you.” 

Obi-Wan was shocked at how calmly Maul said the words and appalled at their implications. He had guessed this was the purpose of the Sith Force bond, but having Maul confirm the depth to which this power went was still unsettling. 

“And so your dreams passed through the link,” Obi-Wan said, steering the conversation back to his original question. “From your unconscious mind to mine.” 

“Yes, it would seem that way.” Maul seemed satisfied that the conversation was over. “I’m sure you can suppress the connection, stop any unwanted thoughts.”

“Do you always have these dreams?” Obi-Wan asked abruptly, not ready to let the topic go. He didn't know when Maul would be this forthcoming again. 

“Yes, there is no way to stop them.” Maul didn’t elaborate further, though his cryptic statement told Obi-Wan that these were more than simple dreams. 

“If you want,” Obi-Wan said slowly, pushing subtle warmth into his words, “I think I could help.”

Maul snorted, clearly offended at the mere suggestion. 

Obi-Wan switched tactics, he should have known by now that any offer to help Maul would only be met by cold rejection.

“I’m not sure that I  _ can  _ suppress this connection,” Obi-Wan said forcefully, “But if we both don’t get some sleep tonight, we’re practically asking to walk straight into a Sarlacc pit before we make it to the safe house. I don’t know what your dreams  _ are,  _ but I think I might be able to silence them – at least for tonight.” Obi-Wan paused, expecting more resistance from Maul. Instead, Obi-Wan saw a new emotion flicker its way across Maul’s face. It happened so quickly Obi-Wan couldn't place it, but it looked suspiciously like... hope?

But as soon as it happened it was gone, Maul’s feature hardened and he spat out his next words. 

“Short of giving me a concussion, I don't know what you think you can achieve. But by all means try, I wouldn’t stop you.” 

“I’m not going to force my way into your thoughts, if that's what you’re suggesting,” Obi-Wan said, starting to move closer to Maul. “For this to work, you have to willingly open your mind to me – just for a moment.”

Maul practically hissed at that suggestion, his own body already retreating from Obi-Wan’s cautious advance. Obi-Wan paused when he noticed Maul recoiling. 

“Maul, please. This won’t work if I have to rip my way through your defenses. Another tear in your psychic barrier and the nightmares will only get in that much easier.” 

Obi-Wan’s speciality had never been mental healing, but he had brushed against Maul’s mental shields enough to feel how rough they were, like a patchwork of barriers constantly deteriorating. The natural psychic wall that protected his thoughts had been torn down long ago, replaced with cobbled together barricades and bracers. It was no wonder the dreams found their way in so easily; Maul would never be able patch all the holes. 

“What are you going to do?” Maul asked, eyeing Obi-Wan was increasing suspicion, “More Jedi nonsense?” 

“Consider it a mental anesthetic. I’ve had to apply it to many wounded soldiers in the field. It will still your thoughts and ease your pain. Sleep will be deep and dreamless.” Obi-Wan locked his eyes with Maul, directing as much calmness as he dared. “May I?” Obi-Wan held up his hand.

Maul glanced between Obi-Wan’s face and his upraised hand, weighing his options. It was a long pause before he gave an almost imperceptible nod.

With wave of relief, Obi-Wan slowly brought his hand near Maul’s face. Obi-Wan’s thumb lighted on the center of Maul’s forehead, the rest of his finger loosely resting around his skull, dodging the horns that got in their way. Obi-Wan could feel the shiver run through Maul at his touch, the increased stiffness of his body. 

“Relax,” Obi-Wan said, struggling to find the balance in his voice. Firmness, an order. It was something Maul would understand, but still gentle, still kind. 

Underneath his hand, Maul took another shuddering breath.

With conscious effort, Maul slowed his heart rate, allowing some of the tension to leave his body. Maul closed his eyes with the concentration, trying to focus his attention away from the soft pressure of Kenobi’s thumb on his forehead. He tried to regulated his breathing, to change his body's rhythms, allowing the rest of his senses fade to nothing. 

But it wasn’t easy. Maul could still feel Obi-Wan’s presence next to him, his energies interacting with Maul’s own. Worst was the physical contact, Kenobi touching him had every one of Maul’s internal alarms screaming. His body didn’t want to remain still and steady; it took all of his willpower not to fight or flee. 

Maul wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that, poised and unmoving. But finally, Maul had willed himself into a meditative state, not relaxed as Kenobi suggested, but as close as he could manage. 

Reality felt distant as Maul was well within his own mind. His breathing was slow and automatic, while his hearts beat a gentle steady pace. No longer was he aware of the tactile feeling of Kenobi’s hand, instead he felt the psychic energy that he was willing towards him, the gentle buffet of Kenobi’s light side projection against his mental barrier. 

As Kenobi had promised, he wasn’t forcing his way in. Instead, every few moments Maul felt Kenobi send out another small wave of energy, letting it brush and bounce off of Maul’s mind before dispersing into the ether.

Maul didn’t like it, he could already feel the itchy scratchy sensation he associated with the light. Kenobi’s energy was grating against his own aura as he persisted with his attempts. Maul fought the urge to push back, to block his mind off further from Kenobi. 

But the promise of sleep was too tempting to reject out of hand. If the Jedi could deliver a fraction of what he said, a little bit of irritation was well worth it. 

Maul stilled further, preparing for what he had to do – what he had never done before.

Timed with a deep exhalation of breath, Maul opened the outermost barrier to his mind, allowing Kenobi’s thought projection to briefly slip through. In an instant, Maul’s mind lit up with the connection. He could feel Obi-Wan’s presence swimming inside his skull, mixing with his own thoughts, expanding into fill his entire consciousness.  

A brief well of panic surged up through his core, he could feel his body going tense and stiff as the connection deepened. 

“Maul, can you hear me?” 

Kenobi’s voice sounded very far away, and Maul wasn’t sure he could respond out loud without breaking the trance. He wasn’t sure he could speak out loud  _ at all.  _

“May we speak through the connection?” Obi-Wan asked him in the real world. Maul could perceive just a hint of concern in his voice.  

_ Yes.  _

Maul had managed to reign in his sudden panic, the initial wave of energies from Kenobi had been unsettling, but the forces inside his mind were beginning to find their equilibrium.

_ Thank you.  _ Kenobi spoke directly into his thoughts. 

Maul suppressed a shudder. He may have agreed to this, but he still didn’t like it.

_ Just be quick.  _ Maul didn’t bother filtering his irritation – most likely Kenobi could sense it through their connection anyway.

Maul could feel the lightside swirling through his mind, bumping into the other barriers he had not let down. Occasionally it brushed past doors to parts of his mind that had long since rusted shut and to which Maul had lost the keys, but Kenobi didn’t pursue any of those locked off parts. Instead, the energies centered around the spot Maul imagined Kenobi’s thumb still rested. 

_ I’m going to start now.  _

Obi-Wan had spoken true when he described the technique as a mental anesthetic. Everywhere his presence touched his mind it plumed with a sudden feeling of numbness. Maul had long since lost feeling in his physical body, and now his mind was succumbing to the same hazy sensation. 

For a moment, Maul tried to hold on as thoughts slipped from his grasp, concerns he had still been contemplating, worries he had yet to resolve. But they slipped through his fingers, and soon all concept of a tomorrow or a yesterday was gone. 

To Maul’s own surprise, he was calm. Nothing but pleasant numbness surrounded him, his conscious sphere growing smaller as the seconds past. While he was still awake, he marveled at the feeling. The anxiety, the worry, the  _ fear –  _ it was gone. He couldn't even conceive of what had troubled him so in the waking world. Because right here, right now, was only dark bliss. 

Rapidly the numbness spread. Somewhere, Maul thought he heard Kenobi attempting to speak to him, but even that was lost. 

His consciousness became a pinpoint, barely aware of existing at all, until  _ finally _ complete and total sleep took him. Just as Obi-Wan had promised, it was deep and dreamless. 

Obi-Wan barely managed to catch Maul as his body finally collapsed under its own weight. Had their beds been more than sturdy mats, he would have let Maul simply fall into sleep. But with jagged rocks surrounding them, Obi-Wan wanted to avoid any accidental head injuries tonight. 

With a deep breath, Obi-Wan lowered Maul onto the mat. He was well and truly unconscious, his body giving no response to Obi-Wan as he gently guided him down. Obi-Wan sat back on his heels, taking in his sleeping companion. 

_ It had worked.  _ Obi-Wan was amazed, if exhausted. He had never encountered that kind of resistance before. Maul’s mind had been incredibly hostile to his presence, and what he felt within... Obi-Wan shuddered. That had only been the first barrier, there were countless more before his true psyche could be reached. But just the first level was enough to disturb Obi-Wan. 

_ At least,  _ Obi-Wan thought,  _ he can be free from it tonight... _


	36. Chapter 36

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg GUYS ITS BEEN FOREVER. But I'm happy to announce WE'VE BROKEN 50k !!!!!
> 
> Thank you Sammy for helping with this chapter!!! (check them out ---> recycledtrashboysith.tumblr.com!)

Obi-Wan woke before Maul, the sunlight cutting through the needle forest casting bizarre shadows across their camp. The harsh light fell across Maul, etching out his form in dark strokes and bright stripes. Parts of him were still lost in the shadows of early morning, but as the first Tatooine sun rose, Obi-Wan was beginning to see Maul with greater clarity.

Not for the first time, Obi-Wan found himself lost in thought as he stared at Maul. His stomach still turned, flickering images of disemboweled raiders not so easily forgotten- and other, even more unpleasant memories floating just below the surface...

But looking at Maul now, asleep and desperately clinging to the rough blanket Obi-Wan had given him, shivering against the morning chill... It was hard to feel anything other than sympathy. 

With every small revelation about the former Sith Lord, Obi-Wan felt his resolve slip. There was so much the Jedi Temple hadn’t prepared Obi-Wan for – and Maul was just one more on a growing list. 

How could the Sith Obi-Wan was sworn to eradicate be this wounded sleeping creature before him? 

Obi-Wan buried his head in his hands. What did he really know of the Sith – who they were or what the could become? The Sith had walked amongst the Jedi for over a decade. Obi-Wan had  _ trusted  _ those that were Sith...  _ loved them _ . 

What was he meant to do when the monsters he hated, who represented all the death worshiping darkness Obi-Wan was charged to defeat, turned out to be little more than children crafted into deadly weapons. And the real darkness was instead born of Obi-Wan’s own failings. 

It had turned out that evil wasn’t the red and black horned devil Obi-Wan dreamt of killing. It was instead the blonde haired blue-eyed child Obi-Wan had grown so fond of – who, even now, he couldn’t imagine hurting. 

Movement from the other side of the camp jolted Obi-Wan back into the moment. Maul seemed to wake all at once. His eyes and posture were wary as he reoriented himself, the blanket all but forgotten.

Obi-Wan fought his face back into some semblance of control, suppressing the storm of emotions Maul had no doubt already sensed. 

But if Maul had any interest in Obi-Wan’s silent thoughts, he didn’t show it. 

“Morning,” Obi-Wan said, his voice catching. His mouth felt dry and his throat tight, the close brush with grief still heavy in his voice. 

Maul nodded slightly. His attention turned to rolling up his sleeping mat and collecting his possessions.

Obi-Wan watched him silently, surprised at the care and precision Maul exhibited as he packed. The blanket was folded, neat and precise, and then set aside as Maul moved onto the mat. There was a tension in Maul’s shoulders that told Obi-Wan he knew he was being watched. 

Silently, Obi-Wan slipped outside the camp, letting Maul finish his preparations in solitude. There were things Obi-Wan wanted to say, questions he wanted to ask. But Obi-Wan supposed Maul deserved a few moments peace.

Outside, his thoughts still raced. He had tried so hard to suppress all memories of Anakin and the Jedi, knowing that if he let his mind wander he would be consumed. But forgetting was near impossible, especially when every molecule of Tatooine vibrated with Anakin's latent energy. 

He could only feel it now, since Anakin had burned too bright and collapsed into darkness. But Tatooine practically sang with Anakin’s Force signature, every ridge and rock felt like Anakin. And if Obi-Wan closed his eyes, he could believe just for a moment that Anakin was still there, only an arm's length away. 

But these were only echoes, a residual presence left over from years long gone. The results of Anakin’s mere existence shaping an entire planet around him, distorting its very life energy to harmonize with his own. 

The Jedi shouldn't have needed a blood sample to recognize Anakin’s potential. If they had simply opened their eyes, maybe they could have seen what was coming. 

Anakin had been a child who could shape an entire planet – and they let him lead a war. 

Obi-Wan shook his head abruptly, purging his emotions as best he could. It took all his long-practiced Jedi discipline to shut down his thoughts, empty his mind, and sever his connection to the world around him. Anakin’s ghosts would disturb him no more.

But while Obi-Wan could dismiss the memories of Anakin, Maul was not so easily forgotten.

The sound of Maul dropping their travel packs outside the camp finally roused Obi-Wan fully back to the present. He wouldn’t allow himself to be blind again, even if looking hurt. 

“Maul,” Obi-Wan didn’t bother to mask the waver in his voice. 

Maul glanced up from where he was sorting the last of the supplies, stopping to stand and straighten uncertainly.

Obi-Wan forced himself to walk closer and examine the packs, lifting each one to gauge their weight. With relief he felt that they were still even, the way he had left them. 

Obi-Wan shouldered one, aware of Maul mirroring his movements.

It was still hard to look at him. Obi-Wan worried what he might find staring back. Maul’s anger had been difficult, but the despondence from the previous night somehow worried Obi-Wan even more. 

But however Maul might look at him, Obi-Wan was determined he would not become what the Sith seemed determined to see. Whatever this Sith Force connection was, whatever it made him, Obi-Wan would not allow it.

But for all Obi-Wan’s good intentions, they did nothing to change the unease he saw behind Maul’s expression. Obi-Wan thought he had done right by the Sith, been more than cautious when entering the other’s mind and shown him more kindness and consideration than by all rights he deserved. The source of his continued discomfort was only more of a mystery.

“Any good at tracking in a desert forest?” Obi-Wan asked with as much light heartedness as he could manage. He called up a map of the area on his unregistered datapad. On the screen, Obi-Wan could see where the needle forest was marked, but it provided precious few details of how to navigate once inside.

“My skills will be sufficient,” Maul intoned, taking the datapad from Obi-Wan's hand.                

Obi-Wan watched as Maul sorted through the content of the datapad's screen, pacing away and occasionally aiming it towards the sky or the ground – utilizing the limited sensor function the device was capable of. Eventually he seemed satisfied, his eyes flicking from the pad in his hand to briefly catch Obi-Wan’s gaze.

Obi-Wan felt his heart sink. He had hoped that after last night he had gotten through to Maul. Though nothing else in Maul’s face or body betrayed his unease, Obi-Wan had quickly grown adept at reading the subtle shifts in Maul’s eyes. In the brief moment their eyes to met, Obi-wan saw the fear and uncertainty.

“Know where we’re going?” Obi-Wan asked warmly, despite knowing it was a futile gesture. 

“Yes, we can reach our destination before nightfall.” Maul didn’t bother looking up from the datapad in his hands.

“Alright then,” Obi-Wan took a breath and hoisted his pack high on his shoulders. “Lead on.” 

If Maul heard him, he made no response. He was already several yards ahead of Obi-Wan and busy referencing the datapad against rocks and shadows as he made sure they were on the right path.

Obi-Wan maintained the distance, giving Maul a large breadth to continue his pathfinding. Obi-Wan would catch up eventually, and maybe by then he would have figured out what to say...        

___________________       

Maul moved the datapad sensor along the nearest rock spire. The faint hum emitted from the device became a crackle as the sensor picked up flecks of ore in the stone. Maul was sure he had located the underground vein half a mile back, but he preferred to keep his attention on his work. Checking every rock for trace amounts of phrikite between here and the Dune Sea was still preferable to whatever small talk Kenobi was no doubt planning. 

Navigating Tatooine was not an easy task, reliable landmarks were few and far between, and the inhospitable landscape meant none had ever bothered to chart the wastelands that lay between civilization. In fact, the only thorough surveys that had ever been done of Tatooine were by the Czerka Corporation, when phrikite veins had first been discovered running below Tatooine’s surface. 

With the promise of a phrikite rich planet, Czerka had spared no expenses on surveying the planet, testing every inch of Tatooine for possible deposits. What they discovered was a web of phrikite rivers that ran through almost the entire planet, with major trenches running unbroken from pole to pole. By all accounts, it was the largest deposit of phirikite in the known galaxy.  

Had Czerka’s mining plans had gone through, Tatooine and its peoples’ would have been left little more than scourged shells. The promise of profit from a source of phrikite this large was almost unimaginable. Separatists and The Republic alike would have paid handsomely for a metal that could withstand even lightsaber wounds. 

With it’s myriad of uses, phrik was desperately sought after, and had quickly become one of the rarest resources in the galaxy. Maul’s only contact with the precious metal was in the hilt of his master’s saber. A near indestructible object, impervious to the effects of Force lightning and made all the more deadly in his master’s hands – one of the finest examples of the ore’s raw potential.  

But Czerka’s mining plans ceased before they had ever truly begun. It seemed nothing good was ever born of Tatooine.        

It was quickly discovered that the desert planet was not only inhospitable to living creatures, but also to the raw ore under it’s surface. So harsh were the conditions, that even the phrikite was not immune to Tatooine's corrosive nature.

Once the ore refining process had begun, it became obvious that the phrikite was malformed, its magnetic properties distorted from Tatooine's heat and pressure. In its final metal state, the phrik was unstable, all but useless. 

Several attempts to alter the refining process were made, but with little effect on the end product. And with interested buyers quickly backing out of the stalled project, Czerka was forced to shut down their mining operations on Tatooine.

But their detailed survey maps remained. 

A scan of surface rock would show the density of of the phrikite deposit, and in turn how big the vein was. Using this technique, Maul had quickly found the major seam he was looking for, a large linear deposit that ran the length of Tatooine’s entire western hemisphere and the same trajectory their destination lay upon. 

They would be able to follow the vein through most of the needle forest and then across the dunes, eventually all the way to the safehouse.

Maul kept his datapad on scan, verifying the readings every hundred yards, making sure they didn’t accidently follow a smaller branch off the main vein. Not that he really had to, the deposits were so dense, Maul could occasionally see the flecks in the stone pillars. He knew the repetitive scanning was redundant, but it kept his mind occupied. It was something that made sense, something he was good at. 

Maul could hear Obi-Wan trailing behind him; his steps were loud and his breathing heavy from the heat. Their connection was silent, each careful to avoid unwanted thoughts slipping through. 

But Maul didn’t need a Force bond to feel the pregnant silence between them. 

Maul knew Kenobi would eventually confront him, and after many hours of quiet travel, the call finally came. 

The sound of his name breaking the silence immediately set Maul on edge, whatever calculation he was running was instantly forgotten. Maul froze and waited as Kenobi closed the distance between them.

Without really thinking, Maul started in on his status report. 

“We should reach the edge of the forest in another hour, but we still have over thirty klicks of desert to cross after that.” Maul let his words trail off, aware that Kenobi seemed uninterested in his update. 

“We should rest,” Kenobi spoke like he hadn’t listened at all, “we will reach our destination in due time.”

“That will waste too much sunlight.” Maul barely contained the edge in his voice, “We should keep going.” 

“Maul,” Kenobi began, his voice carrying the slight patronizing note that infuriated Maul to no end, “we waste more time if one of us collapses from dehydration and heat exhaustion.”

Maul clenched his teeth, stopping the litany of objections he had to Kenobi’s poor logic. The specifics of why Kenobi’s decision was a foolish one was not the source of Maul’s anger. It had grown apparent to Maul that even the strongest Jedi were still illogical, sentimental idiots. 

“Fine,” Maul growled abruptly, dropping his luggage where he stood. “Rest, if you must.” Maul crossed his arms defiantly, preparing to stand and wait until the Jedi was ready to continue. Obi-Wan could rest; Maul was not so inclined. 

Maul waited the halfbeat for Kenobi to make some objection, but when he only sighed in resignation, Maul turned away, eager to put some distance between them again. 

But before he could make it more than a few paces, Obi-Wan’s voice brought him back. The Jedi had made himself comfortable leaning against a small rock and seemed to be busy searching for something in their luggage. 

“Tell me about Malachor.” Obi-Wan’s voice was casual, but Maul could sense his misgivings.  

Maul turned to face him again, his stance remaining closed and averse to Kenobi’s attempt at friendly conversation. 

“It’s an outer rim planet in the Chorlian sector, nearly a hundred and forty parsecs from the core. Uninhabited, rocky terrain–” 

Obi-Wan raised a hand to cut off Maul’s evasive answer. 

“Yes, thank you, Maul. I’m aware – but I think you know what I meant.” 

Maul narrowed his gaze, the Jedi seemed intent on getting the answers he wanted. With an irritated sigh, Maul started again.

“Surely you know your own Jedi history,” Maul barely controlled the sneer to his words, “Your so-called Army of Light and the destruction of the Sith Empire. I would have thought the story to be emblazoned throughout your Temple halls: the Sith crushed and your Republic secured. Is that not the tale you tell your younglings to ease their fears, to propagate your sanctimonious Jedi philosophies? The Jedi victorious and the Sith obliterated?”  

“Clearly not  _ all  _ the Sith,” Kenobi countered, the warmth gone from his voice. 

“Insightful,” Maul smiled briefly, “but about a thousand years too late. Your histories mark the battle of Malachor as a defeat for the Sith, when it was in fact our greatest victory.”

“How,” Kenobi broke in again, “Your Empire fell, the Republic restored peace...”

“The Sith  _ Empire  _ was a decaying vestige of the once great Sith, whose time had long since passed and whose legacy was wasted by those unfit to be called Dark Lords. The Sith killed on Malachor were weak and petty fools who brought their own destruction – but it was from that wreckage that a new Sith lineage arose.” 

Maul paused, a brief feeling of panic touching his mind. These were the secrets he had been charged to keep, the knowledge he was meant to die protecting. Histories only to be spoken to his own apprentice, should that day have ever come. Certainly not something he had ever conceived of explaining to a Jedi of all people.  

And yet, it hardly seemed to make a difference anymore. This was a legacy that lived on in him alone. Sidious appeared to have no intention of carrying on the will of their forbearers. Vader would never taste the ashes on Malachor or look into the depths of a holocron. Whatever his master meant to form his new apprentice into, it was something entirely separate from the traditions of the past. A new sort of monster for his new age. So what did it matter if the Jedi knew? It was all too late anyway. 

“Your lineage?” Kenobi prompted as the silence lingered. 

“Yes,” Maul spoke slowly, “What your histories don’t include is  _ how  _ the Sith of Malachor died. Because it was not at the hands of your army. The entire battle was merely a facade to lure both the Jedi and the Sith to their destruction. An elaborate deceit so that the true Sith could go into hiding, free of Jedi suspicion and interference. The Dark Lord Bane was the one responsible for the graveyard on Malachor, and the one responsible for the Sith’s new genesis.”

“Always two?” Kenobi suggested, understanding finally dawning on his face. “A direct lineage, passed down from master to apprentice...”

Maul nodded, the real meaning of that fragmented Sith lore had evaded the Jedi. But at least Kenobi seemed to understand the significance. 

“For nearly one thousand years, an unbroken chain leading to this moment. A directive imparted from the last truly great Lord of the Sith.” Maul couldn’t help but feel some of his passion drain as he concluded. “Until very recently, that is.”

Kenobi was silent for a long moment, his face tense but unreadable as he considered all Maul had imparted to him. No doubt he was reconsidering everything he thought he knew of the Sith, all the Jedi falsities he had taken as gospel. 

Maul allowed himself to ease to the ground across from Kenobi, tired despite himself. The conversation taking more out of him than it ought have. The silence between them felt less burdensome, and Maul was content to exist in the stillness. 

However, Kenobi was infuriating as ever. 

“Here,” the Jedi rustled through his nearby luggage, pulling out a second ration bar. 

“That's unnecessary,” Maul directed his gaze away from Kenobi, an attempt to discourage any more conversation. 

It didn't seem to deter the Jedi. 

“You haven’t eaten since last night and we are still–”

But Maul cut him off, a new hate flaring behind his stony expression.

“What do you  _ want  _ from me, Kenobi?” Maul practically spat the words, the anger that had been building since that morning finally peaking. 

“Pardon?” Kenobi barely managed, surprised by the sudden outburst, his saber hand ever so slightly moving in response. “I don’t know what you mean.”

But Maul went on like he had barely heard him.

“What can you possibly want that you can not simply take?” Maul gestured in frustration, “Why do you waste your time with bribes and persuasions – with these redundant indentures. What power do you plan to gain from some immaterial debt? What control do you want that you don’t already have?” While Maul had kept his voice steady through the short tirade, he could feel the tips of his fingers shake. He also allowed his hand to drift closer to the hilt of his blade, for whatever good it would do him. 

He could see Kenobi’s face twist in confusion, his calm mask wavering. 

“I don’t know what you mean,” Kenobi spoke the words slowly, as though that would somehow convince Maul of his sincerity. 

“You waste your time,” Maul bit out, “taunting me with mortal indulgences like food and rest. Do what you must, but I will not be  _ grateful _ for your insufferable Jedi benevolence!”

Maul tensed, watching Kenobi’s expression unfold. They were both still seated, though Kenobi had a height advantage from the rock outcropping he rested on. In response, Maul had already adjusted his feet underneath himself. A roll to the side might spare him for a moment. 

But if Maul had incited any rage, the Jedi kept it well hidden.   

“You misunderstand,” Kenobi spoke, his voice betraying emotions hidden from his face. “That was never my intent.”

“Then what?” Maul pressed, some of the previous rage diffused, replaced by genuine confusion. “What do you want from me?”  

Kenobi did not respond at first, his gaze distant as if the forest behind Maul might contain the words he was looking for. 

“What I wanted,” Kenobi said carefully, “and what I still would like, is for you to trust me.”                                

A stunned silence followed. Maul would have laughed, but for the look of dead seriousness on the Jedi’s face. Maul began to form some response when Kenobi kept speaking, drowning out his incredulities. 

“I had hoped that I might prove myself someone worth trusting. Force knowns I don’t deserve it; I haven’t exactly been the mentor I was supposed to.” Obi-Wan shook his head, brief emotion welling in the Force around him but quickly dispelled. “I know you’d rather I be the man who sent thousands of soldier to their deaths without out so much as a pause. And maybe this would all be simpler if I was,” again the Jedi broke off to reign in the emotions that clouded his words, “but I’m not. I  _ won’t  _ make those mistakes again. And I won’t let you force my hand.” 

Maul braced himself to move as the Jedi’s hand finally alighted on his saber hilt, but before Maul had a chance to act, the weapon was already in his hand. 

And then tossed harmlessly into the sand between them.

“I’m not forcing you to stay here, Maul” Obi-Wan said calmly. “Take the supplies. Take my lightsaber if you wish. You’re more than capable of surviving without me.”

Maul remained half-crouched, his body still poised to move – to fight. His eyes darted quickly, trying to ascertain what trap or test the Jedi had set. What dire consequence should follow if he were to act or reach for the lightsaber?     

When Maul made no move, the Jedi sighed and stood, moving to walk away from the supplies, his lightsaber, and Maul. 

“You are more than welcome to follow me, Maul. The galaxy is a strange place now, and companions are few and far between.” Obi-Wan stopped walking to turn and face Maul again. “But this has to be your choice. I won’t keep entertaining this game. I’ll do my best to be worthy of your trust, but I will not allow you to manipulate me into controlling you.”    

“And what of the raiders,” Maul hissed, “you would let me slaughter them? Abandon your Jedi principles to prove some misguided point about  _ trust?”  _

“Hardly,” Obi-wan’s eyes hardened slightly, “this offer is not without it’s own ultimatum. Betray my trust and I won’t be asking you to leave.” Obi-Wan paused to take a shuddering breath that betrayed his own nervousness. “But I don’t believe it will come to that... I don’t think you will betray me.”

Maul narrowed his eyes. Against all logic, Kenobi seemed sincere which was more worrying than anything else. Maul allowed his gaze to quickly flash to the lightsaber half-buried in the sand, and then back to the Jedi still waiting on his response. 

Without breaking eyes contact, Maul grasped the discarded saber and stood, his movements slow and calculated. He was not foolish enough to consider Kenobi  _ defenseless.  _ He still had the Force at his command – and access to their connection. Still, a well timed feint and strike might be enough to deal a killing blow before he had a chance to react. His saberstaff in one hand and Kenobi’s own blade in the other could be surprising enough to unbalance the Jedi and reveal a fatal opening.

Maul walked towards Kenobi, subtly shifting the weight of his steps – light and balanced, ready to attack. If Kenobi noticed the shift, he didn’t react. His posture remained open and undefended. 

“Your  _ trust _ too easily,” Maul growled, only a few paces away now and still Kenobi was unflinching. 

“Really?” He said pleasantly, “I’ve always found just the opposite.”

Maul stopped himself just outside striking distance, hesitant despite himself. 

“Why?” Maul finally managed, the words felt metallic in his mouth. “Why do you trust me?”

“I don’t know,” Kenobi admitted, “But you remind me of someone. And I’m not willing to give up on either of you.”

Maul paced outside the invisible strike zone, keeping his distance to the Jedi consistent. Suppressing the urge to take his kill quickly, if for no other reason than he doubted Kenobi was as defenseless as he was pretending to be. Hasty action would not be his downfall again.  

“Do you still intend to defeat my master?” Maul spoke the words carefully, still pacing his circle around the Jedi, eyes never wavering from Kenobi’s face.  

“The Empire can not be allowed to continue. If that means killing the Emperor, then yes, that is my goal,” Kenobi said diplomatically. 

Maul brought his pacing to a halt in front of Kenobi, the other’s lightsaber still firmly in his hand. Maul sent out a small wave of Force energy, he could see Kenobi’s nose wrinkle as the wave hit him. 

Maul felt the reverberations, the Force bouncing off the Jedi after interacting with his aura allowed Maul to read him more thoroughly, to gain greater insight into his nature. 

Kenobi often suppressed his Force signature. Even for a user as skilled as Maul it was often hard to read. But this time, Kenobi didn’t hide, he allowed the wave to hit him, to reveal his presence in the Force. 

“What do you sense?” Kenobi asked, genuine curiosity in his voice. 

“You feel the same,” Maul said dismissively, “You fight your own nature, but it still remains. You would cut me down again and feel no guilt.”

“That’s untrue–”

“Your guilt,” Maul spoke over him, “is that you feel  _ none.  _ You fear you aren’t what you ought to be.” Maul laughed dryly, “That is what I sense, Kenobi.”     

Finally, Maul broke the circle, walking within an arm's length of Kenobi. Still, Obi-wan stayed perfectly still. 

Maul lifted the hilt of the Jedi lightsaber, bringing it forwards in what could have been the beginning of a strike. But the blade stayed unlit, a harmless handle held out between them.              

Cautiously, Obi-Wan moved his hand to the hilt and Maul let go, allowing the Jedi to reclaim his blade. 

“I will follow you,” Maul said darkly, “And we will see who is right.” 

Abruptly Maul turned away, stalking back to where their luggage lay discarded. He felt a small wave of relief, Kenobi’s eyes no longer boring into his own. Though that was scant comfort as his thoughts raced to justify his actions, to quantify the benefits of letting the Jedi live. All this for the promise of revenge against his master. But at the same time, the Jedi’s words seared their way through Maul’s mind, interrupting his stream of anxious thoughts.  

The Jedi had been right; Maul had not betrayed him. 

A shiver ran through Maul. Try as he might, there was no justification for allowing the Jedi to live. Kenobi had shown weakness, and Maul ought to have seized the opportunity. 

But he hadn’t, just as Kenobi predicted.

Maul could practically hear his master’s voice berating him for the foolish choice, for showing weakness and cowardice. He allowed the Jedi to tempt him with words like trust and companionship, the concepts of lesser beings who couldn’t comprehend power and control.

Maul had crouched to retrieve his carrybag, but as his thoughts swirled out of control, he found it hard to stand again. The weight of the darkside around him felt palpable; the imagined voice of his master nearly potent as the real thing. 

It had been over a decade and Maul had yet to fully purge the ghosts of his master from his thoughts. He doubted he ever would. 

Fear was Maul’s greatest strength. It was the ecstasy and adrenaline that fueled him in his most desperate moments. The drive to survive and conquer that brought him back from near-fatal experiences. A healthy fear of death and injury kept him strong and ready. Complacency and safety were the undoing of great Sith.  

But, terror – that was paralyzing. 

Maul may have feared death, but death was far more merciful than what his master promised. And from that terror, Maul could draw no strength. 

But even as Maul fell deeper under the lingering spell, something brought him back – a different energy, just at the edge of his senses.  

“Maul,” Kenobi said softly, a hesitant hand finding its way onto Maul’s shoulder. 

With the touch came a now familiar wave of energies, the warm, if irritating, flow of the light side. 

Different memories now punctuated Maul’s waking nightmare. The blue glow of the bacta tank he had awoken in, the warm stew on the outcropping, Kenobi’s thumb on his forehead as he drifted into deep dreamless sleep. 

They didn’t entirely banish the dark thoughts plaguing Maul’s mind, but the interruption brought his senses back to the present. The ground felt real again. The air felt warm and dusty, no longer the deadly cold that the dark side conjured. 

Maul stood abruptly, the Jedi’s hand falling away with the movement. When he turned and saw Kenobi’s face, he saw worry. 

“What?” Maul growled, wishing, not for the first time, that the Jedi’s eyes weren't so intense. It was hard to shake the feeling that the Jedi wasn’t somehow staring through him and into his thoughts.

“You opened the connection,” Kenobi answered hesitantly, “I don’t think you meant to, but I could hear... what you heard.” 

Maul only snorted and fixed his pack. 

“If you don’t like what you see, don’t look.” Maul brushed past him, the datapad once more in his hand, alive and crackling in response to ore deposits nearby. 

It was a few moments before Maul could hear Kenobi pacing after him, his steps heavy from the added weight of his pack. 

“I want to look.”

Maul paused briefly to give the Jedi a suspicious quizzical look, but Kenobi went on undeterred.

“I’m ready to look, if you’re willing to show me.” Kenobi’s face was serious, and Maul could sense no deception in his voice.  

“You won’t like it,” Maul said dismissively, “your kind never do. You’d rather look up to the stars than down into the lower levels you stand on the back of.”   

“I know,” Kenobi paused to take a deep breath before continuing, “But I need to look. I can’t ignore the darkness around me any more.”

Maul shrugged, unimpressed with whatever self righteous journey the Jedi was embarking on. If the Jedi was so intent on seeing the dark realities around him – well, it would be hard to ignore them in the days to come. With the entirety of the galaxy in his master’s gentles hands, there would hardly be a place to look that wasn’t steeped in darkness. Whether the Jedi wanted to see it or not, the darkness was coming. The ghosts that lurked in the corners of Maul’s mind were but a miniscule fragment of the pain and cataclysmic destruction that would soon sweep across the stars. 

So, Kenobi was welcome to look, but Maul couldn't guarantee what might stare back. 


	37. Chapter 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!! Apologies for the extended absence. I hope you all have been having a wonderful summer.
> 
> Without further ado- lets get back into this. We've got a lot to do!
> 
> Thanks as always to Sammy for being an amazing editor ♥♥

“What is it?” Obi-Wan shouted loudly. He could see up ahead that Maul had stopped and appeared to be waiting for him to catch up. They had left the needle forest some hours ago, their progress slowed again by the deep sands beyond.

Apparently Maul didn’t feel like shouting back, because he continued to stand and wait for Obi-Wan. The terrain was so flat that Obi-Wan could see for miles. No danger lurked on the horizon, so Maul’s halt didn’t worry him so much as it perplexed him. He briefly considered trying their link. It was moments like this he had most often used it with Anakin, a silent and easy way to communicate on missions. But he fought the urge and simply trudged quicker to catch up with his irritated looking companion.

“What?” Obi-Wan finally said breathlessly, at last reaching Maul, “What’s wrong?”

Maul simply held out the data pad from earlier, which Obi-Wan took with some bemusement.

“And?” Obi-Wan prompted, not really understanding the problem even with the datapad now in his possession.

“You only marked the safe house with a radius,” Maul finally said with mild frustration. “I can’t get us there if I don’t know the actual coordinates.”

“Ah- right,” Obi-Wan smiled, relieved that it was such a small matter. “I can guide us the rest of the way... though-” Obi-Wan studied the screen, “where are we exactly?”    

Maul jabbed a finger onto the map to show their position, irritation practically bleeding off him.

“Right. Of course,” Obi-Wan said mildly.   

__

With Obi-Wan now guiding their small party, Maul was forced to stay closer by, occasionally peering over Obi-Wan’s shoulder at the map to make sure they weren’t going completely off course. Though the Jedi seemed confident that he knew where they were headed, that did little to put Maul at ease.

Maul struggled to find his focus. There was nothing for him to do but walk along at the Jedi’s annoyingly slow pace. He couldn’t afford to let his thoughts wander far... It was impossible to judge what memories would surface. And the way the Jedi had cut through his terror earlier unnerved him- he didn’t feel like repeating the experience.

But despite Maul’s attempt to push the memory from his mind, he found instead that he couldn’t stop replaying the sensation – the warmth he was beginning to associate with Kenobi. It was more than just the light side. Rather, it was a particular vibration that Kenobi seemed to generate all on his own. Maul didn’t know much about softness or comfort, but Kenobi’s energy reminded him of how firepits felt. The promise of heat and light and food when he was deep in the wilderness training and hunting. Or even the small garbage fires in the lowest levels of Nar Shaddaa, where other wretched creatures gathered to huddle.

There were so many nights Maul had only survived because he was able to crawl into that small circle of heat and curl next to the embers, their light keeping away the worst of the night time creatures- though the monsters of Nar Shaddaa hadn’t been deterred so easily.

Maul didn’t know that he had the words to explain it – the _relief_ he had felt when Kenobi had silenced his nightmares, touching him with a fire that warmed his body and banished the monsters. A spell strong enough to ward off the ghosts of his master that still lurked in his mind.

Maul could feel his resolve slipping even as his pride riled at the thought of crawling to Kenobi, seeking that life sustaining warmth he somehow generated.

But Maul pushed these thoughts aside. He had gone without heat and light and food many times, lived with the horrors and the terrors and the sleepless nights his entire life. He didn’t need whatever Jedi magic Kenobi had enticed him with.

And yet, despite Maul’s confidence that he didn’t _need_ Kenobi’s warmth, he couldn’t deny the shameful part of himself that desperately wanted it.

“ _Finally,”_ Obi-wan breathed. Maul looked up at the noise and realised that a structure had come into sight. Going by the Jedi’s reaction, it was the safehouse.

It was a dull industrial looking thing, dropped in the middle of the wastelands, even so far from bantha trails that hardly anyone would stumble upon it. With four thick duracrete walls, sand blasted and sun bleached, it was little more than a grey block rising from the sands. A lone vaporator stood guard outside, some tubing and wires running from it to the house, disappearing over the roof line. From the outside it was entirely nondescript, unusual only in contrast to the round domes that made up most Tatooine architecture.  

“Maul,” Obi-Wan paused waiting for Maul to direct his attention away from the house. “I’m sure you’ve put together that there are people waiting for me, others who already inhabit the safe house.”

Maul nodded. He was used to information being withheld from him. Though, as they grew closer to the threshold of the house Maul wondered how long the Jedi would delay.

“And it would be an understatement to say that – well, they’re not expecting me to bring company.” Obi-Wan hesitated, “I’m going to have to ask you to do something… a gesture to put my friend at ease.”

Though Maul didn’t physically move, Obi-Wan could sense him recoiling in the Force, his feelings of distrust just barely hidden behind his neutral face.

“Such as?” He ground out, irritated before Obi-Wan had even made his suggestion.

“I can’t let you walk into the safe house... armed.” Obi-Wan practically winced as he said the last word. Maul’s glare cut through him savagely, but he pressed on. “I’m going to have to ask you for your lightsaber.”

This time Maul did step back, his hands curling into fists as he stopped himself from reaching for the weapon.

Obi-Wan hastened on before the situation could escalate.   

“We’re going into hiding, Maul. No one can know that we have the Force. Once inside, I shall surrender my lightsaber as well. They will both be locked away and hidden. We can’t risk anyone finding them; it's crucial that they not be discovered or we risk the Empire’s notice.”

Obi-Wan could see his words were doing little to relieve Maul of his doubts.

“You must think I’m a fool,” Maul snapped, crossing his arms and continuing his death glare at Obi-Wan. “To willingly surrender my weapon and walk into a hostile environment unarmed. Allow myself to be lead into what may very well be a trap where you and your _friend_ can ambush me. You bid me hand you my weapon and walk to my own slaughter!”  

Maul’s speech had dipped into the familiar cadence Obi-Wan was quickly growing to recognize. The slight stilt and formality – and flare for the dramatic – that even Obi-Wan could now recognize as Palpatine’s influence. It was a sign to Obi-Wan that Maul was falling back on his training, on the lessons of his old master. These were words no doubt spoken to him by Sidious, warnings against ever trusting another. Obi-Wan knew by now that his own soft words would do nothing against the lingering threat Sidious had left in Maul’s mind.

“Maul,” Obi-Wan interrupted, keeping his voice as hard and dispassionate as he dared, “you know as well as I do that if I wanted you dead that lightsaber of yours would make little difference… and I certainly wouldn’t need any help to finish the job.” Obi-Wan had taken a gamble with his words. Maul was already on edge, and he didn’t want to antagonize him further. But if Obi-Wan had learned to read Maul correctly...

Maul kept his stance closed and eyes hard for a moment longer before finally allowing the logic of Obi-Wan’s words to win him over. The change from his rigid posture told Obi-Wan he had won their verbal posturing.                     

However, the victory did little to ease Obi-Wan guilt over what he had just said, even if he had only spoken the truth. It was painful to be so upfront about their reality... though perhaps those painful reminders were for his own benefit as well.

Maul handed him the lightsaber with little ceremony, his movements as unflinching as ever. Obi-Wan, on the other hand, nearly gasped when the hilt fell into his hands.

Obi-Wan had never had the gift of psychometry like some Jedi, but anyone with even a touch of Force sensitivity would have been able to feel the psychic weight of the object he had just been handed. Its physical heft was substantial, meant to be used with both hands and housing at least double the amount of components as a single bladed weapon. The blade itself may have been heavy- but its weight through the Force was staggering.

Obi-Wan’s eyes darted to Maul’s, a thousand questions begging to be asked, but Maul’s steely gaze silenced them all. Whatever Maul and this lightsaber had been through would have to be left to Obi-Wan’s imagination for the time being.

“I’ll take care of it,” Obi-Wan said numbly, still reeling from his contact with the weapon.

Maul only shrugged dismissively, though Obi-Wan could sense his reluctance to give up the weapon was more than a safety concern. Jedi formed a deep bond with their lightsabers and the crystals within... It had never crossed his mind that the Sith might do the same.               

__________

Maul stood just inside the door of the safehouse, his senses reaching out to search for any danger before he entered further. He allowed himself a quick cursory glance at his surroundings, surprised to find that the nondescript exterior of the safehouse was misleading. What from the outside looked like little more than a duracrete box opened into a spacious interior courtyard. The villa-style layout allowed for the living quarters and storage rooms to form a ring around the central courtyard, with a few balconies and walkways overlooking the open space. While the sky was clearly visible above them, the faint shimmer of an energy field suggested that little could enter the building from above. On the far end of the villa from the main entrance, Maul could see a set of recessed stairs leading down into the ground, likely a storage area of some kind.

Directly in front of him and in the center of the villa’s courtyard was a large water well, somehow connected to the vaporator that stood guard outside. Water circulated through transparent tubing that one could then presumably release into the basin for easy drawing. Some leftover water still filled the shallow tub.

Ahead of him, Obi-Wan had divested his luggage against the well, moving deeper into the courtyard and shouting some greeting to those inside.

Maul cautiously followed him. He had yet to see an exit besides the door he had just come through, and that had surely locked behind him.

He caught movement from behind a courtyard facing window on the second floor. Whoever had just passed by could be heard descending from stairs Maul could not see. Maul lingered where he stood, a few open doorways lined the wall to his left – good for cover if he should need it.

The sound of moving feet on stairs abruptly ended, and a moment later a dark figure came into view from behind a partial wall at the far end of the villa. Maul watched carefully as the figure stood silently in the deep shadows cast from the overhang above.

Obi-Wan moved towards them in a friendly gesture, some warm greeting cut short by their sudden speech.

“ _Why have you brought him here_?”

Maul noted the unnatural heavy accent, less of a dialect and more of a disguise. It jostled some distant memory, and he cast for where he had heard this particular cadence before.

The figure took a few steps out from the shadows and into the harsh light of the courtyard, allowing Obi-Wan to put a reassuring hand on their shoulder, but otherwise showing no inclination of anything less than total hostility.

“I can go into the details later,” Obi-Wan said hurriedly, “But he is not our enemy – not anymore.”

Maul tensed as Obi-Wan pushed the double bladed hilt into the other’s hands. If they recognized the weapon it was impossible to tell.

The figure now holding his weapon was dressed from head to toe in dark elaborate clothes. What could have been easily mistaken as finery to an untrained eye was actually a masterful disguise. The cuts and textures of the overlapping and billowing fabrics disguised the wearer’s movements, creating misleading creases and folds that hid the wearer’s true form. Even with his Force senses, Maul could get almost no read on the figure standing only yards ahead of him. If they were human, the voice suggested female, but the obvious vocal manipulation made it difficult to be certain. Any number of weapons or defenses could be hidden beneath the extensive black drapes. When the figure moved, the illusion only furthered Maul’s unease. Be it the clothing or something else, this figure did not move naturally. There was an uneven, stuttering motion to it’s steps; unintentional or deliberate, Maul could not decipher.

Maul’s eyes locked where a face rightly should be, only to be met by more dark cloth, though here it was semi-transparent and allowed for some light to break through. But even with increased visibility, Maul only found more confusion and distortion. Maul couldn’t discern what was an alien feature, a disfigurement or a purposeful modification. On top of it all, Maul saw the suggestion of a sophisticated type of artistry applied to the face to avoid detection by cameras and other scanning devices. Maul settled his gaze where he deduced eyes should be, the flickering glint of white beneath the shroud giving away their position.

Maul reached deep in the Force to glean any additional information, but there too he only met walls. Whoever this was, they were well trained to suppress their signature and avoid Force manipulations or inquiries. Which was some clue in and of itself, though it provided more questions than answers.

Obi-Wan was now whispering quietly and quickly to the figure, his hands moving in gestures that betrayed his desperation. Whatever he was saying, the shadowy figure made no response.

Maul thought it better to remain silent than attempt to plead his own case, which he was loathe to do regardless. Whoever this dark other was... Maul did not trust them.

“ _Fine._ ” The figure finally said, holding up a hand to silence Obi-wan, shoving back Maul’s lightsaber hilt with the other. “ _He will stay unarmed and under your supervision- for now.”_  

“Padme...” Obi-Wan said quietly as the other turned to leave, not willing to let their conversation end so abruptly.

“ _Padme Amidala is dead,_ ” the figure bit out, “ _she is dead and Anakin Skywalker killed her.”_

Before Obi-Wan could respond, she had retreated back to the staircase and disappeared into the upper level of the villa.

Maul felt a few more pieces fall into place in his mind...his fateful mission on Naboo and the subsequent Trade Federation blockade... More recently, the fragments of dreams and memories Maul had stolen from Vader’s mind.             

Obi-Wan directed his attention back to Maul, a new sort of weariness across his features. Clearly the conversation had not gone as planned.

“Vader dreams of her,” Maul said flatly, “He believes her dead.”

Maul could see the ripple of agony across Kenobi’s face, though he hid it well.

“That’s for the best then,” he responded, voice tight. “Let’s not speak of such in the open though...” With strained hospitality, Kenobi continued, “Let me show you to your room.”

_____________    

Obi-Wan continued to talk in the way Maul was quickly learning to tune out. An endless stream of words to fill the silence as Maul dragged his luggage and followed Obi-Wan through the villa. Various comments on the layout of the building, the settlers who had built it decades ago and mysteriously disappeared, and the improvised energy shield made from spare parts, an old nanowave stove and spacer’s tape.

Soon they reached a door on the ground floor that opened into a cramped storage space, a few crates still tucked into the corners but otherwise completely empty.

Obi-Wan continued with his facade of hospitality.

“It's just for now,” he was saying. “The larger room still needs to be cleared out – but for now, this will have to do. There are plenty of blankets in storage, though I’m afraid actual bedding is scarce.” Obi-Wan moved around the room uneasily, “The window is too high to see out of, but it lets in lots of natural light...”

Finally, Maul couldn't stand another word and cut him off.

“It’s sufficient,” Maul dropped his bag on top of a nearby crate. “Don’t bother clearing the other room.”

“It’s no trouble,” Obi-Wan ignored him, speaking as though they were discussing a flight upgrade at the spaceport. “It will be more comfortable, more room to store your things.”

Maul cut him off again, unsure how but determined to put an end to Kenobi’s attempts at feigned normality.

“The small room will be sufficient,” Maul said again with more force, “it is... _familiar_. I will be more at ease here.”

Maul saw a crack in Obi-Wan’s otherwise smooth facade, his eyes dropping away from Maul’s gaze.

“Oh yes... of course,” Obi-Wan said, apparently chagrined at his lapse in forethought.

Maul sighed, willing their conversation to be over and to be left alone.

“The window is a welcome addition, however,” Maul added after a moment, which seemed to satisfy Kenobi at last.

With a few more promises to bring in other trivial comforts, Kenobi left Maul alone in the narrow, dimly lit room.

As the door closed and the only light came from the thin window several meters up, Maul let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

Against all odds, they had made it. They slipped from beneath his master’s notice and escaped to some small hole in the middle of nowhere. Completely cut off from the galaxy at large, hidden from all – save the occasional desert bird that flew overhead.

And the woman, the one from Vader’s dreams, she was here as well. Not dead, as Maul had thought, but alive and also here with them. The woman who used to be a girl from Naboo and whom he had seen in holo transmissions. Even back then, a master of art and disguise – cloaking her intentions and identity behind shields of paint and costume.

Who was she to Vader, and who did she continue to be? More than a retired queen from a distant world, certainly.

Maul tried to recall the details of Vader’s thoughts... the woman, Padme, had said that Vader slayed her. Vader seemed to believe the same.

A near death encounter with the fledgling Sith Lord then, one that left her more dead than alive. It might begin to explain the strangeness of her movements and need for disguise.

But Maul’s thoughts began to drift. The mystery of Vader’s former acquaintance felt immaterial in wake of everything Maul had just survived. The quiet and stillness of the new room tempted Maul to relax, to fall into the darkness of his mind and meditate... maybe even sleep.    

But sleep was elusive as ever, and Maul sufficed to meditate. Allowing the darkside to flow through him, to run across his injuries, and allowing his own pain to feed the dark void of the Force. He could feel it touching him with an impossible coldness, stealing away all his heat – a vast emptiness that demanded to be filled. And for awhile, Maul allowed his spirit to try and fill it, allowing the dark side to engulf him. It was dangerous to let yourself fall too far into the abyss; not everyone returned. But Maul had been taught to delve deep into this emptiness, taught how to let the dark side feed off his anger and, in return, to draw power from it.

Maul wasn’t surprised when he briefly opened his eyes to find the room pitched in darkness. Soft sounds from the floor above him suggested he was not the only one still awake.

Maul closed his eyes again, willing his mind to sleep. Unbidden, the sensations from the previous night returned. The lingering remnants of Kenobi’s Force manipulation still clung to the edge of this thoughts. It felt unreal now, the stillness and the calm – the way his mind had gone numb, letting go of the constant worry and fear. Sleep had always been fitful, his senses only ever dampened, his body remaining alert and ready to move should anything prey on him in the night. But the sleep he had been granted last night was something he could only imagine he had experienced as a child – the few years which he could not even recollect but for indistinct impressions – before his apprenticeship began.     

Maul shifted uneasily, allowing his body to fall into some semblance of a comfortable sleeping position, though it did little to bring him any closer to sleep.

Shadows grew at the edges of his thoughts, waiting for when his body eventually gave out and allowed him to rest when the physical need for sleep overrode his ingrained training. For all his body’s preparedness to fight monsters that might attack in the night, Maul had little recourse against the monsters he could feel amassing in the corners of his mind.

Now the shadows moved and Maul could feel the build-up of phantom pain. It ran along old scars and across his tattoos, burning where the raised tissue and ink crossed.

Maul felt this new pain come in waves, suddenly aware that he was asleep and unable to wake up.

In a small part of his mind, detached from the shadows and the pain where he could still think rationally, he found he was not surprised. It was only natural that even here, halfway across the galaxy, his master could still punish him. Maul doubted his existence was even an afterthought in Sidious's mind, but it was entirely like his master to have built-in measures against his defection.

Maul’s body involuntarily curled in pain. He could feel where the ink burned under his skin, touching his muscles with fire. Bombs and inhibitor chips could be disabled or dug out if one was especially determined, but Sith magic had no such disadvantages.

Far too many of Maul’s tattoos ran with cursed pigment, delivered onto him by his master and imbued with whatever spells Sidious thought wise to cast on Maul.

It now appeared that some were latent, benign until Maul’s own thoughts or actions caused them to activate – actions such as escaping his master... or trusting a Jedi.

In between the pain, Maul felt panic, fragments of thoughts – worry that one of these latent spells might be lethal. Maul had never carried anything to act as a suicide pill. There was no torture in the known galaxy that he had not withstood. But perhaps it was naive to have thought his master had such impeccable faith in him. It only made sense that some sort of deadly Sith magic might lay encoded in his skin that could silence him should the need arise.

But those thoughts were left unfinished. The small rational part of his mind that had sequestered itself from the pain was compromised. Logical thought vanished as the burning sensation ran across his face and into his mind. In a moment of shock and weakness, Maul felt his mental barrier slip, unwittingly opening a connection he had firmly been keeping shut.

There was an end to this nightmare, and Maul knew it only required he ask for it.

The open connection buzzed in his mind like a comm link left open, transmitting only the crackle of space radiation. Maul didn’t know what pain he might be inadvertently letting through the connection and didn’t know how much Kenobi could hear of his thoughts, what few remained.

A new wave of pain caught him, the tattoos around his chest and neck threatening to suffocate him. Maul felt his unconscious body moving, curling in on itself through the agony.

In the same moment, something new accidently slipped from his mind and through the open connection. Something desperate and weak and humiliating. Not so much a word or even a coherent thought, but a disgusting plea nonetheless. A show of weakness his master had enjoyed wringing from him, and which Maul had pledged never to reveal to another living soul. For a moment, it flowed freely into the Force connection, but with an impossible demonstration of will, Maul grappled control of his mind once more. Just barely weakening the spell enough to hear his own thoughts.

Something was coming back through the Force connection now, a response to his desperate cry. But Maul stifled the connection with all the mental energy he could gather, ending their link before he could ever hear Kenobi’s reply.     

And then he let the pain take him. He had used up all his energy sealing the Force connection with Kenobi. He could only pray the seal would be enough to stop the Jedi from seeing too deeply into his pain, from knowing the depths of his weakness.

* * *

(A/N- some visual references I collected for the safe house.) 

 

 


	38. Chapter 38

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. Sorry for the break there. I've been working on some other projects that took up my time (hopefully some projects to share with you soonish haha) 
> 
> But this is far from abandoned and hopefully you enjoy this next chunk.
> 
> Thank you all so so much for sticking with this. And everybody who has helped along the way, left nice comments and kudos and re blogged that art. You are all wonderful ♥

Obi-Wan sat on the lip of the water basin, eager to finish his work before the second sun rose and the heat became unbearable.

He had been bent over the complex series of tubes that fed the water basin for at least an hour now, and yet each time he turned it on, the water ran brown.

Obi-Wan blew air out of his nose in annoyance. Starships engines, navi computers, even holonet routers, _those_ Obi-Wan could build, program and repair. But a temperamental vaporator? He was growing to regret allowing Owen to return home...

Obi-Wan felt Maul before he heard him. By the time Obi-Wan looked up the other was only a few yards away. Maul moved with such quiet precision. If it weren’t for the Force, Obi-Wan would have been caught completely unawares.   

Out of habit, Obi-Wan began to wish him good morning. Well wishing hadn’t seemed to catch on with Maul, so he let the welcome die. Instead, Obi-Wan reached for the towel hanging off the edge of the basin and pushed it in Maul’s direction.

The Sith was still wearing what was left of the Jedi robes borrowed from their ship, the oversized dark brown robe nearly swallowing his slight frame. His hood was up and obscuring his face, no doubt a precaution against Tatooine’s blistering suns. Underneath, Obi-Wan could still make out dirty streaks from their previous day’s journey.

“For your, um...” Obi-Wan gestured vaguely to his own face when Maul made no reaction. “There is some dirt... and blood” Obi-Wan finished awkwardly, quickly directing his attention back to the vaporator tubes in front of him. Though from the corner of his eye he saw Maul pick up the damp cloth, returning it a moment later stained brown and red.

Obi-Wan absently adjusted a valve with his hydrospanner, momentarily unable to recall if he was meant to tighten or loosen this one...

“It's backwards,” Maul’s said with obvious derision.

“Pardon?” Obi-Wan looked closer at the valve – _backwards?_   

“Not the valve. The _spanner.”_

“Oh... yes, I see.” Obi-Wan looked down to see that just as Maul had said, he was using the tool on the wrong end of the hydrospanner. It would neither tighten nor loosen a valve that way.

Maul moved to walk away but Obi-Wan spoke quickly to keep his attention.

“Do you think –” he paused, not entirely sure what he meant to say but determined to say _something_. “Do you think you might have better luck?”  

“I’m sure I won’t have better _luck_ ,” Maul said, catching Obi-Wan in a cold glance. “But I certainly have better skill.” Maul gestured for Obi-Wan to move and Obi-Wan slid further along the basin lip to give Maul room to work.

It was easier like this, Obi-Wan thought. Maul’s sharp yellow eyes busy studying the vaporator system; Obi-Wan free to gaze out across the courtyard. He found he didn’t mind how close they sat, so long as their eyes didn’t have to meet.

Obi-Wan thought he had read, many years ago now, that dathomirian zabraks had naturally yellow eyes. Obi-Wan wished that knowledge helped, wished that meant he could look at Maul without seeing a different pair of burning yellow red-rimmed eyes. But whenever Obi-Wan looked too deep, he could feel the heat of Mustafar on his skin and hear the crashing of the lava flows.    

It was easier like this. Not looking.

Obi-Wan was startled when it was Maul who broke their silence, speaking without looking away from his work.

“Who is she to Vader?”

Maul’s words betrayed no emotion, the question almost casual, as though he had simply asked for the time of day.

Obi-Wan supposed it was a small mercy that Maul had not inquired about it sooner, had shown no interest in the events that had brought them together. Though, whether Maul know the specifics or not, he had witnessed the end results.

“She was – _is_ his wife...”

Obi-Wan was surprised how steady his voice remained. He had yet to say those words out loud and yet, even after _everything_ , somehow they sounded right. Maybe he hadn’t had the words, but this was something Obi-Wan had known in his heart for a very long time.

There was silence for a moment before Maul spoke again.

“There are children.”

A statement, not a question, and it made Obi-Wan’s blood turn to ice. It was a long moment before Obi-Wan could find his voice.

“Does the emperor know?”

“No,” Maul said flatly. If he heard the tremor in Obi-Wan’s voice, he ignored it. “Lord Vader thinks they are dead.”

Obi-Wan visibly sagged with relief, releasing the shaky breath he had been holding. He doubted that Maul would understand, doubted the former Sith would be able to feel how tenuous the Force was surrounding the children. Their fates clouded, but the weight immeasurable.

“They must be protected,” was all Obi-Wan ended up saying out loud.

Maul snorted, no doubt assuming Obi-Wan’s conviction came from nothing more than sentimentality. Obi-Wan didn’t bother correcting him, instead choosing to turn their conversation to something else that had him wondering since the previous night.

“Maul,” Obi-Wan said hesitantly, “did you attempt to contact me last night?”  

Once again Maul did not look up from his work, but Obi-Wan was sure he didn’t imagine the suppressed flinch of Maul’s body at the words.

“No.” A new hardness had entered Maul’s voice, which only undermined his words. “You must have sensed the dreams.”

“I see...” Obi-Wan murmured, allowing his tone to betray his disbelief. “Maul, I told you. I can help–”

“The dreams are inconsequential,” Maul snapped, his cool composure wearing thin as Obi-Wan persisted.

“I used to feel the same about dreams. I was very wrong...”  

When Maul didn’t respond, Obi-Wan pressed further, not willing to let the subject go. He did not believe that what he had felt last night was merely a stray dream drifting through their Force bond. Obi-Wan shuddered as he remembered it, the broken agonized wail in the Force, so unmistakably Maul, and so completely desperate. Then nothing- a wall where the feeling had been.

“These dreams...” Obi-Wan said slowly, “they are because of your Master?”

Maul’s eyes snapped to Obi-Wan’s, cold hatred freezing Obi-Wan in place. Though, Obi-Wan could not tell if the anger was directed at him- or brought about from the memory of Sidious.

“ _Punishments,_ ” Maul ground out, “to make me strong. Something a _Jedi_ wouldn't understand.”

“Or make you easier to control,” Obi-Wan countered gently.

To this, Maul did not respond, instead looking away and back to his work. But the flicker of emotion across Maul’s face told Obi-Wan that this was a truth Maul had figured out a long time ago.

“I’m sorry...” Obi-Wan said softly, though he didn’t know what for.

A noise from the second floor broke both their concentrations, each quickly turning their heads towards the sound.

Padme’s dark silhouette moved between the large open windows on the second floor, with her came the short cries of children. Obi-Wan could already hear the distinct noises of Leia, crying clearer and louder than her brother.

But all three of them disappeared again, the twin’s sounds becoming muffled.

Maul threw a valve and water began to fill the basin, Obi-Wan looked inside- but the water still ran brown and murky from the tubes. So dark and clouded that Obi-Wan could see nothing reflecting off the water’s surface.

“I won’t know if my adjustments worked until the next cycle,” Maul said. “This water is already contaminated, nothing to do but let it out of the system. Once the debris settles on the bottom, the water should be safe enough to use- or drink if you have a strong stomach.”

Obi-Wan wrinkled his nose at the prospect.

“That’s alright- we have some water reserves. No need to risk poisoning ourselves yet.”

With the vaporator adjusted and nothing left to say, Maul stood again and began to walk away. Obi-Wan thought of calling out to him again, but couldn’t find the words. Just as quietly as Maul had appeared, he left. Disappearing into the storage rooms at the back of the villa, no doubt assessing for himself just how long they could survive here on the precious supplies Obi-Wan and Padme had managed to secret away from Coruscant in all the chaos.

Obi-Wan sighed, putting up his own hood as he felt the second Tatooine sun beat down on him. He let his fingers dip into the basin, now nearly full of the putrid water. As it filled, it had grown darker... almost totally black now.

Maul said the debris would settle, that the flecks of dirt and rot would sink to the bottom- allowing clean water to rise to the top.

Obi-Wan swirled his hand through the liquid, churning up more dark particles that stuck to his fingers when he withdrew them.

But how long would it take? How long for the darkness to settle... and for the good to rise back up?        

Soon with two suns blazing into the courtyard Obi-Wan was stirred from his contemplation. He retreated further into the villa, escaping the worst of Tatooine’s piercing light. The shadows were soft and welcoming below the overhang, the air cold and causing his skin to prickle with the sensation. He pulled his robes tighter around himself, letting the cool darkness envelop him. The morning chill still lingered in these shadowy corners of the house, darkness surviving even as the suns rose higher. But even in the short time he rested here, he could see the shadows waning, the pool of darkness around his feet growing smaller. Eventually everything would be caught in the suns’ revealing light again, scorched and laid bare.

Obi-Wan escaped into the upper level of the villa.

He moved ghost like through the dusty hall that ran the eastern wall of the house. What he could imagine had once been quaint and filled with warmth was now barren and empty. The plaster of the walls chipped and flaked, mixing into the sand that littered the floor collecting in small piles and in corners. Scraps of junk and garbage that even the most desperate scavenger had left behind littered the floor. Large bands of metal and fractures of plastids that had long ago been something were now merely warped shells of they used to be. Broken and useless.

Obi-Wan stumbled past them, moving in and out of the dusty light that filtered through the windows.

At the end of the hall was a ragged curtain that sufficed as a door to the next room. Obi-Wan moved the stiff fabric and ducked inside.

It looked little different from any of the other grey and deteriorating rooms of the ancient villa, but it was full of such warm energies that Obi-Wan hardly noticed. A few precious objects adorned the walls, some that Obi-Wan recognized, and some that were unfamiliar to him. Obi-Wan didn’t envy the small symbols of adoration Padme had managed to keep with her in the chaos. He didn’t need trinkets to be reminded of how much he had lost… Tatooine would be his reminder. Each breeze and rock spoke to him, bringing back memories he had thought were buried.

Obi-Wan pushed past his melancholy; that was easier in this room. He moved forwards to the crudely assembled bed in the center, its short walls blocking his view until he reached the side.

Obi-Wan’s heart ached, suddenly full of regret he had never found the time to spend amongst the Temple younglings. He had been too busy fighting a war- and raising his own perpetual youngling- to spend the long hours in the crèche that other masters did. At the time it was easy to excuse- there were children on thousands of worlds who needed his help. This was at a time when he could still entertain the thought of a life past the war, with long days of study and contemplation at the temple, allowing other young bright-eyed knights to adventure the galaxy in his stead.  

When had he realized that was mere fantasy?

When the war started in earnest? When Coruscant was under siege- or earlier? Perhaps when Qui-Gon died and the Sith had shown their faces. Maybe even before, Obi-Wan mused. Had he ever truly believed he would be granted a peaceful life? That danger and tragedy wouldn’t always be constant companions on his journey.  

That had been exciting, in a time gone by, to stand on the edge of a ruined city and watch governments collapse and rebuild. The young and the brave rally the call for change and freedom, ready to fight and defend and survive.

He’d helped where he could. Felt their fervor and known their pain, and sometimes left with a heavy heart when he had done all he could. Called away by his Masters to a new world with new problems that needed Jedi help and wisdom.

So often Obi-wan had wished to have an army at his back, the strength of ten thousand men to help him right the wrongs he was too small and few to change.

He had no idea what burden that wish entailed.

Conviction was hard to come by standing on the edge of a burnt out city- and knowing it was you who had dropped the bomb. When the rally cries called for your death and the death of the Republic.

Obi-Wan shook his head. No, his was never meant to be a peaceful life.

Obi-Wan reached out a hand to hold the railing on the bed, allowing himself to sit on the crude furniture positioned at its side, watching the small sleeping forms of Luke and Leia.

Obi-Wan hadn’t been able to save the galaxy. Hadn’t been able to save Coruscant, or the Temple- or the man he loved.

It would be arrogant to think he could save these children- but he would die trying. That was a fact he knew in his heart. He would die someday, and it would be so these children could live.

The curtain moved and disturbed his thoughts.

Padme brushed through, phantom like, her dark clothes making her look like a walking shadow- stretched and distorted as she moved to stand near him. She pulled away part of her face covering, revealing the partially synthetic skin that worked its way from her neck to her jaw.

She had escaped Vader- at a price.

“How can you trust him?” Though her voice was low it pierced the air around him. It was not the same heavily accented disguise she had used with Maul. Padme had no such sympathy for Obi-Wan. She would speak to him as herself- with nothing to dampen the rage and the sadness- the bitterness and the accusation that clung to her words.

“I still don’t know that I can,” Obi-Wan said diplomatically, retreating to his training.

But Padme sensed his aversion, knew him too well not to see that he hid behind soft words. She would have none of it.

“How can you even stand to look at him- the _creature_ that killed your master?”

He had been expecting these words, the questions he himself had been fighting with since the start, but hearing them out loud and laced with the all indignation and betrayal and hurt which only a friend could summon- Obi-Wan still flinched.

Obi-Wan’s impassive facade couldn’t help him anymore- Padme had no time for it- and she deserved answers.

“Because…” Obi-Wan started, his hands gripping tighter to the bed rail he still held, trying to collect the fragments of thoughts he had been preparing for this conversion, “Because, Padme, I need to believe that people can be redeemed. Even if they have done unspeakable things.”

Though Padme made no reaction, it was a dismissal of his statement nonetheless.

“Are you speaking of Anakin,” Padme finally began, her voice holding no compassion, “or of yourself? Because if you want to atone for your sins, Obi-Wan Kenobi, then do as I’ve asked and join Bail in the Rebellion.”  

“I can’t…” Obi-Wan said weakly, begging her with his eyes to understand, but knowing she would not.

“No,” she practically spat, “You’d rather save stray animals to assuage your guilt.”

Obi-Wan didn’t protest- didn’t know that he could. He allowed the accusation to hang in the air between them.

Obi-Wan didn’t want to fight- he was too tired. And Padme was not wrong, all he could do was plead his case.

“You should let him keep his lightsaber,” Obi-Wan said softly, “if raiders or bandits attack he will defend the house out of self-perseveration if nothing else.”

“No. He must prove himself to me first. Put it in my safe in the store room.” Padme’s tone took on the regal edge she had used with Maul, retreating even further away from Obi-Wan.

“If you insist,” Obi-Wan inclined his head slightly with the words. “I will also be locking up mine along with it.”

Padme eyes burned for a moment before she snapped, “What is the use of you without your lightsaber?”

“There can be no evidence of the Jedi, it is for your safety.” Obi-Wan said, matching Padme’s cold and formal tone.

Padme only glared at him, unwilling to compromise.

“That monster stays on the ground floor and you keep him on a short leash,” Padme ground out, unwilling to let the conversation end without having the last word.

“Understood,” Obi-Wan inclined his head to her again.

Padme made an audible huff and made for the door, but paused on the threshold to wound Obi-Wan a final time

“The Jedi have already failed me once- don’t fail me again, Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

__

Obi-Wan woke with a start, soft but fussy noises from the childrens’ bed bringing him back. At some point while he rested the hazy heat of Tatooine had given way to dusk, bringing with it crisp winds that whistled through the boarded up windows of the room.

Leia was crying and Obi-Wan could hear Padme’s uneven tread coming to check on her child.

Obi-Wan rose from where he had fallen asleep sitting next to the bed, a sudden wave of apprehension swamping his mind. Leia’s crying pitched higher and now Obi-Wan felt it too- a dark disturbance in the Force.

Obi-Wan stumbled past the room’s curtain and into the hallway, Padme brushing by him, too concerned for her children to pay him any heed.

The cries had risen to wails and Obi-Wan could feel a sob building at the back of his own throat. Darkside energies pulsed through the house and Obi-Wan could taste ozone as he took shaky breaths.

Stumbling towards the stairs, Obi-Wan pushed aside the cloying darkness and felt for Maul in the Force. What he felt made him stagger.

Maul’s nightmares had leaked through their connection before, bringing with them phantom pain and fear. They had disturbed Obi-Wan and confused him- but they were dreams nonetheless. This pain was real.

Obi-Wan barely made it to the bottom of the steps, leaning hard against the wall as the dark energies built. He could feel his skin prickle with pain and his stomach twist into knots. Obi-Wan gasped as an especially strong waves of pain wracked his body.

And this was just the overflow. Obi-Wan knew that whatever pain he was in, Maul was in so much worse.  

With a few shaky gasps to gather himself, Obi-Wan searched for the root of his connection with Maul, the source of all the darkside energy flowing into his mind. If he didn’t want to collapse, he needed to at least stifle the flow.

It took long moments to battle his way through the pain and the haze, but Obi-Wan eventually found his center. Strengthening his own mental barrier against the storm of Dark Side energy.

His chest still ached and the Force continued to crash around him, but he had found the strength to move. Hastening to the door he sensed Maul was behind.

He shouldered through to the bedroom, nearly collapsing on the other side, his eyes searching for Maul.

He found him. His body crumpled in a way that somehow felt unnatural- and so still.

Obi-Wan staggered closer, almost wishing he had come upon Maul writhing and howling- the stillness and the silence was so much worse. But as he grew closer Obi-Wan could see the fleeting signs of life, the shudders that ran intermittently across Maul's body, sending his fingers spasming and his eyes rolling behind their hooded lids. Still alive but barely conscious- and slipping.

Obi-Wan dropped quickly to his side, moving limp arms and adjusting the Zabrak’s shuddering body so he lay on his back.

Where Obi-Wan’s hands passed across tattoos he felt them burning, the dark energies stinging against his palms. Clearly they were the source of what was killing Maul.

For a brief instant Maul’s eyes refocused, aware suddenly of Obi-Wan. They were dark with pain, but sharp and threatening.

“Let me help you-” Obi-Wan started, afraid Maul might slip back unconscious at any moment. He lifted a hand to reach for Maul, but pulled back when Maul bared bloody teeth at him.

“The tattoos are killing you,” Obi-Wan insisted harshly, “I can help.”

Maul’s face contorted in pain as his body seized again, spasming and curling in on itself, then finally going limp.

“ _Fine,”_ Maul grit between teeth he could barely open, “ _quickly.”_

Obi-Wan didn’t delay. His hands found their place on Maul’s chest, the tattoos burning hot in the Force under his palms. He had never considered the markings were more than a tactic to intimidate enemies- that the winding stripes and swirls held potent magick. Legend had it that Sith sorcerers could enchant weapons and trinkets, could cut sigils into wood and metal to imbue them with dark powers. Now Obi-Wan realized the stories were true- and Maul had these sigils carved into his flesh.

The dark paths on Maul’s skin burned hotter as Obi-Wan pressed down, forcing his own lightside energies against them.

Obi-Wan had never been a healer, didn’t know much about how to mend a wound or heal a mind with the Force. Didn’t know if his attempts to save Maul would even work- the Dark Side magick that was running through Maul’s skin was very powerful. He could feel it fighting him, resisting the energy he poured against it.

Obi-Wan leaned in harder, using all his long cultivated focus to visualise the Force flowing through him and into Maul. He hoped with enough energy he could disrupt or neutralize whatever darkness was killing Maul.

He could feel Maul’s muscles spasm under his fingers, breaths coming in odd patterns as lungs worked against a chest that couldn’t expand. Obi-Wan risked a break in his concentration to glance at Maul’s face, if he was still conscious he showed no signs.       

Obi-Wan reached with his mind, finding the Force connection, Maul’s thoughts were on fire.The barriers that normally kept Obi-Wan’s occasional probe out had completely fallen, and Obi-Wan’s conscious could slip in unquestioned.

Still, Obi-Wan hesitated- worried that another presence in Maul’s mind might be too much.

As if sensing his worry, Maul managed a faint signal. Weak and distorted, coming from wherever Maul had managed to retreat to in his mind while his bodied died.

Obi-Wan didn’t need a second invitation. Pushing the Force through the connection, allowing a free flow between their two minds.

Obi-Wan grimaced as he felt the darkness spill from Maul into his conscious. But Obi-Wan managed to neutralize it as it came, to flow out from his mind and into the Force.

Obi-Wan allowed himself the first sliver of hope. By using himself as a conduit, Obi-Wan could feel the dark side energies leaving Maul. And what darkness that did remain began to be canceled out by the healing Light Obi-Wan projected.   

But the process was long. Maul came and went from consciousness, his body fighting to breathe as tattoos continued to burn in his skin and damage his muscles. Obi-Wan never let his hands move, despite the acidic sting of the marks under his hands. And together, fighting to keep the link open, they let the darkness wash from Maul’s mind into Obi-Wan’s.

It was hours before Obi-Wan felt an equilibrium and several more after that that Obi-Wan could feel the dark magic waning.

Exhausted and asleep Maul’s breathing took on a slow rhythm. The shudders and seizures become sporadic with long bouts of stillness in between.

Obi-Wan pulled his consciousness back from Maul, careful to disentangle their thoughts completely before retreating to his own mind.

And finally, Obi-Wan lifted his hands from Maul’s chest. They were sore and numb and burned like he hand handled a plasma bolt in his bare hands- but when he turned them over they were undamaged- if shaky.

Obi-Wan sat back on his heels, all the exhaustion he been fighting coming over him in waves. With a last effort Obi-Wan reached across to a nearby crate where untouched blankets sat folded from the night before.

One he hugged around his own shoulders to fight away the cold shaky feeling that threatened him. The other he drew across Maul, still asleep and curled on the floor. With Obi-Wan on longer holding him in place, his body had naturally folded in on itself, his head down and knees drawn up to protect his chest.

Obi-Wan’s mind was numb. Some small part reminding him it was impolite to stare- that he should leave Maul to sleep in peace. But Obi-Wan didn’t think he could stand if he wanted to. He had poured all his reserves of energy and strength into Maul to help him fight whatever curse was killing him. Obi-Wan could hardly stay upright, eventually allowing his body to fall against the crates stacked behind him. Moments later his eyes shut, and the world was lost in darkness.        

 **_________**     

Beams of light from the high window cut through the room and across Obi-Wan’s face finally rousing him awake. The meager hours of sleep had done little to restore his energy, and he was immediately struck by how empty he felt, all his reveres so completely depleted- he foresaw many hours of long meditation before he began to recoup all he had lost.

He let his eyes find Maul laying nearby, and though the other’s eyes were open, Obi-Wan sensed he was in deep meditation; his gaze fixed unseeingly at the ceiling above him and his body rigid with concentration. But after only moments of Obi-Wan’s eyes on him, Maul broke his contemplation, blinking in the sunlight as he brought himself back to the moment. Obi-Wan watched quietly as Maul moved his body stiffly and attempt take a similar sitting position as Obi-Wan.

“You shouldn’t move too much,” Obi-Wan cautioned out of habit, “we don’t know the extent of the damage yet.”

Maul didn’t respond, staying up right seemed to take all his focus. But after a moment, Maul appeared to have mastered his pain, at least enough to spare the energy to glower at Obi-Wan for his trite comment.

Obi-Wan didn’t need the Force to sense that Maul would prefer to be alone. But Obi-Wan had questions and wasn't about t be so easily deterred.

“The markings,” Obi-Wan said slowly when Maul seemed to have found a decent position to sit. “They flow with the Dark Side- they hurt you. It’s why you called out to me that night.”

Maul averted his eyes briefly, which Obi-Wan took as confirmation of his statement. And though it seemed painful, Obi-Wan knew there was more Maul was not telling him, so he pressed further.

“But why? Aren’t they Dathomirian markings?” Obi-Wan tried to recall his research from shortly after Maul had been captured. He had seen holo-images of other Zabraks with similar markings, though he had discovered little else, records of Dathomirian culture were scarce and hard to come by even for the Jedi.

“Some,” Maul finally said, his voice rough and edged with pain. “But most are from my master. Both are designed to channel the Dark Side- they would look similar to an untrained eye.”

Obi-Wan leaned closer. He had never studied Maul’s patterns this close and was curious if he could find the change in style. Maul was unflinching as Obi-Wan’s eyes moved across his skin.

The tattoos on Maul’s face, Obi-Wan noted, seemed softer. If he hadn’t known better, he would have assumed they were natural markings, they even bore signs that they had grown along with Maul. These lines were smooth and flat against his skin, the black deep and even. Obi-Wan thought he could sense concern behind these tattoos, the lines applied with a kind of grace and gentleness.

Obi-Wan allowed his eyes to travel further down along the branching patterns which spread across Maul’s torso and arms. It was here that Obi-Wan began to notice the change.

What had been flat clean lines were now raised with rough edges and jagged strokes. Obi-Wan found moments in the lines where Maul must have been unable to remain still through the pain, the tattoo veering erratically and gouging deep into the skin.

Obi-Wan had to push down the building horror as he realized what he was looking at. The markings were so intricate and complex, it seemed nearly impossible, but Obi-Wan would recognize this kind of scarring anywhere.  Some of these tattoos had been administered with a lightsaber.

Obi-Wan’s eyes flickered back to Maul’s, but they betrayed nothing.

“What is their purpose…?” Obi-Wan managed after a moment, leaning back from Maul and putting distance between again.       

“Why mark any slave? Ownership, possession...” Maul shrugged, and then regretted it, the movement clearly paining him.

Obi-Wan looked away, Maul had a talent for making his questions sound foolish- while simultaneously avoid answering them.

“And yours doubled as an inhibitor chip?” Obi-Wan suggested after a moment, recalling distantly Anakin’s occasional mention of the device.

Maul nodded slightly in conformation.    

Obi-Wan felt he had many more questions to ask, but could see Maul retreating somehow even further from him. It didn’t seem likely he could pry any more information out of him right now. Nor did he want to. They were both exhausted, and though Maul refused to show the extent of his discomfort, Obi-Wan knew he was in great pain.

Through his own weakness Obi-Wan rose to leave, but not before a final question.

“Do you think this will happen again?” Obi-Wan worried if the attack happened again he would not have enough energy to help Maul fight it.

Maul shook his head briefly.

“No- I don’t think so. My master likely thinks I’m dead now, no doubt he sensed the spell activating. Even he could not anticipate you thwarting his this magic.”

Ob-Wan supposed that was some small relief.    


	39. Chapter 39

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello welcome back. Happy thanksgiving to those in America. I'm happy to bring you a new chapter. I don't have much to say up top. But See notes at the end for some updates. 
> 
> thank you so much and please enjoy.

Obi-Wan stumbled across the courtyard, weaker than he had felt in quite sometime. The suns were well overhead, but despite their harsh daylight, Obi-Wan still felt he was lost in a shadowy dream.His hands parted the curtains that lead to his own small bedroom in the villa, and once over the threshold he nearly collapsed.

The small amalgamation of pillows and blankets that sufficed as a bed tempted him, promising comfort and sleep, but he pushed those feelings down.

Instead, Obi-Wan knelt rigid on the floor. Though sleep was tempting, he knew he was in desperate need to meditate; to mend and stitch his mental shields back together again. He cleared his mind as best he could- though he couldn’t quite let go of Leia and Luke’s distinctive hum in the Force. He also found he couldn’t to let go of Maul, the Force bond in his mind near impossible to ignore.

It was long minutes until Maul and the twins were only faint static, merely the quiet background noise to his own thoughts.

Obi-Wan shifted uncomfortably. Stilling his mind had not taken this long since he was a Padawan and Obi-Wan could all but feel his Master’s disapproving gaze on him as he struggled to find basic composure. He retreated to the most fundamental Jedi lessons, attempting to slow his breath, heart and racing thoughts.  

Already his knees hurt, sand and small stones dug easily through his thinning trouser legs and into his skin. The pain should have been a distraction to be quietly dismissed, instead, Obi-Wan found it had become an odd comfort. The pain was at least familiar.

Through the Force, Obi-Wan sensed Maul had fallen into fitful sleep and Luke likewise. Leia, however, was awake and distracted by an especially intriguing corner of her blanket stuck between the bed wall. Her mind singularly focused on the task of dislodging it.

Obi-Wan relaxed, further letting go of his focus on them. They were safe, at least for now.   

Briefly he turned his attention Padme, though she hid herself well. No doubt taught by Anakin how to shield her thoughts from Force users. Though Obi-Wan hardly needed the Force to know what she was thinking, the former queen had spoken her thoughts plainly enough.  

Obi-Wan forced calmness through his body again, letting reality fade that much more.

However, Padme’s accusations still troubled him.

_What use was he?_

He thought he had an answer to that- but it was one even he didn’t find much solace in.

His last mission as Jedi, given to him by Yoda, was to kill Anakin Skywalker.

In that, of course, he had failed. His duty was now to raise and train one or both of the children in his care- that maybe they might succeed where he had not.

Padme did not know this yet, though Obi-Wan held no illusions that she hadn’t already begun to suspect the truth.  

However, this was not Yoda’s only task for Obi-Wan.

In his last moments with the master, Yoda had imparted a final edict. Obi-Wan was to continue his own training. Not with body or lightsaber- instead he had simply been instructed to “seek out the Whills”.

Obi-Wan had sensed that Yoda knew more than he had said, as he often did.

Like all Jedi, Obi-Wan knew of the Whills. But the council had always discouraged the seeking out of such Force entities- they cautioned young Jedi not to put their faith in deities. So Yoda’s sudden request had made little sense then- and still less now.

In response, Obi-Wan had only managed a broken and near petulant- “But how, Master?”

Yoda’s response still rung in his ear.

“Cut short, your training was. More to teach you, had your Master.”

Somehow the pain of those words continued to cut through Obi-Wan’s already damaged heart. Another wound of betrayal and guilt, the likes of which he hardly imagined he could still feel. Obi-Wan hadn’t thought there were pieces left to rend, yet somehow, his spirit had broken a little more.   

He had always suspected his knighthood had been a lie. That Yoda’s comforting words after Naboo were ingenuine, simply platitudes- a kindness to a masterless Padawan. After all, had it not been his own ineptitude that lead to all this? Was it not a softer blow to believe he had always been destined to fail?

Obi-Wan recalled only numbly dropping his head in acceptance of Yoda’s statement, the small Master continuing to speak, words that even now Obi-Wan couldn’t quite understand.

What the Master suggested was impossible. That Obi-Wan’s training must continue- and that Qui-Gon would be his master once more.

Obi-Wan could almost laugh... almost...

But if this was true- why had Yoda waited so long to confide this to him? As though Obi-Wan hadn’t already spent countless nights entreating his old Master for guidance.

In that moment, Obi-Wan had been shocked by the anger and dread he experienced on learning this truth. His Master _had_ heard every one of his desperate beseeching and sometimes angry prayers over the past fourteen years.

But was it worse that Qui-Gon had heard- or worse that he hadn’t answered...?

Simply too much had happened since that moment with Yoda for Obi-Wan to even consider the task set before him.

But now with only an eternity of time and sand ahead of him, he felt the moment to start had finally come.

There were so many things Obi-Wan had wanted to ask, to scream, in the years after Qui-Gon’s death. Questions he had ruminated on well into the night and cried softly into his pillow for fear of waking young Anakin in the next room.

But as time went on moving, oblivious to his grief, those questions had faded. In the past few years, Qui-Gon had felt like a memory and Obi-Wan’s Padawan years merely a story he had heard. Adventures and dangers that always seemed to have a happy ending.

_Well, almost always,_ he corrected.

But still, somehow even the darkest memories seemed enchanted. Obi-Wan had always known he was fighting for what was right, and that at the end of the day he would have a home and Master to return to.

The war had changed all that. The Sith took his Master, the Senate obfuscated his sense of morality, and Anakin... he had destroyed so much more than mere temple walls.

When the war had still just begun, Obi-Wan would often wonder how his Master would have faced these challenges? The difficult missions, obtuse council members and unruly padawans.  

But as the galaxy seemed to grow darker, crueler and more confusing- Obi-Wan found he couldn't even imagine what his Master might have done, what foresight the Force would have granted him that Obi-Wan was blind to.

So he had stopped asking.

But now he was meant to ask again and Obi-Wan felt his stomach turn in uncomfortable knots at the thought..    

There had been some small solace in Qui-Gon being dead- his Master had been spared witnessing his apprentice’s utter failure.

Except now, if Yoda was to be believed, that was not true.  

And that thought was almost too much for Obi-Wan to bear.

_

It was hours of meditation before Obi-Wan even broached his purpose- and found he was completely unsure how to begin.

_I’m sorry, Master._

The words felt so immensely underwhelming. As though he had dropped his Master’s favorite cup or torn his new tabard once again.

But what else could he say?

He wanted to say that he had tried- _tried so hard_ , to be the Jedi Qui-Gon desired and the friend and mentor Anakin had deserved.

But excuses had never much placted his Master in life- and he severely doubted they would in death.

So Obi-Wan let the words hang- _what was he meant to say?_

_I’m sorry I failed you,_ Obi-Wan started again, _I never was fast enough._

The apology came punctuated with fragments of a mission long gone- but not forgotten. Memories of riding swoops over valleys for days without rest, a rescue gone so horribly wrong. His own swoop damaged, his leg broken, and all the while another Jedi’s life hanging in the balance.

A life ultimately lost, because Obi-Wan had been too slow and too careless.    

Qui-Gon had protected him that time. Choosing not to disclose the finer details of that mission to the council. Some of those details being Qui-Gon’s own none-to-legal acquisition of probe droids and swoops, but it had also hid Obi-Wan’s failures

Which was not to say he had escaped unpunished.

His Master’s disappointment was worse than any admonishment the council could have inflicted. And in the days that followed, Obi-Wan often wished his Master had been a lesser man who would simply yell or lash out. Instead, Obi-Wan was only regarded in stony silence. His Master’s coldness near unbearable, though Obi-Wan knew he deserved nothing less, and if he was honest with himself, deserved a great deal more.

He had pledged to himself that he would never again fail his Master, though of course, this was another promise he had not kept.

_Too slow again. Too careless._

And another Jedi paid for it with their life.

Obi-Wan felt his tentative calm slipping. Emotions he had just barely been containing washing across his body as his thoughts dipped red and the world seemed to grow cold. He feared if he opened his eyes now he would only see an angry wall of energy, and beyond it...

Panic spiked inside him and he vaulted from his kneeling position, hand hovering above the hilt of his blade.

_His adversary- he was here!_

And then the world swung back into focus.

Yes- here, and waking from a fitful sleep. Curling his knees against his chest like a wounded animal, cold and hungry, still too weak to rise.    

Obi-Wan sank back down, this time accepting the comfort of his bedding.

_I’m sorry, Master. I can’t..._

Obi-Wan let the thought trail off.

____________________________________

Maul levered his way off the dusty floor, muscles working more on memory than will.

His ribs were still broken from the speeder crash and continued to burn with his laboured breathing. New palm sized bruises forming where Kenobi had done his Jedi magik. Not to mention every other inch of his body that screamed with pain, the near brush with death taking a greater toll than he had expected.     

His mouth was still bitter with blood, and his finger tips were torn raw from his desperate clawing at the ground. But nothing else on the surface seemed beyond repair.

A quick standing stretch revealed no great damage internally either

Merely pain then. He would survive that.

He would have stayed asleep longer, his mind seemingly caught in a shadowy place between wake and sleep.  But something had woken him- a sudden flare in the Force.

But as soon as Maul had been conscious of it- it was gone. Leaving in its wake only a fleeting familiar impression of death, and battle and pain.  

Maul brushed it away, he did not want to ruminate on the past. Too much demanded his attention in the present.

Briefly, he allowed his mind to stray to Kenobi, and the events of the previous night. But just as quickly, he dismissed them.

He had survived. That was all that mattered.

And his continued survival was something he could direct his energies towards.

He forced his body through the motions of movement, pulling his robes tight around his body.

This had been a distraction- nothing more.

The dark side hadn’t managed to kill him, but it would be a sorry victory indeed if they starved to death in the weeks to come.  

He would return to his plans. Jedi tended to act as though they could live off solely fresh air and the Force- but Maul had no such inclinations.  

His brief survey of their stores had been encouraging, the Jedi and former queen had managed to secret more off of Coruscant than Maul had suspected. But the desert was demannding, and raids were common. Maul hardly intended to be complacent.

He still worried about the state of the vaporator, and had yet to inspect Kenobi’s haphazard shield generator. He would do his own surveys, and then reviewing their supplies.

He was alive, and he planned to stay that way. The rest could wait.         

___________

Despite his weakness of falling to his bed, Obi-Wan found he had not been able to sleep. After several hours of futile tossing, Obi-Wan gathered himself again. He longed for nothing more now than to sleep and let his cares fade and darkness take him. But he had one final duty that needed to be performed. Perhaps after that his mind would release him.

With laboured footsteps Obi-Wan made his way across the courtyard, down the recessed stairs and into the dimly lit cellar. He had sensed Maul down here already, and knew he had likely sensed Obi-Wan’s approach in return. But Obi-Wan made sure to walk with heavy steps on the stairs, announcing his arrival just in case the other was taken by surprise.

He’d barely rounded the corner into the cellar proper, when Maul began to speak, dispassionate and formal in a way Obi-Wan was growing accustomed to. Preemptive and trying to distract Obi-Wan from whatever his purpose was.

“Fuel is only going to last a standard month,” Maul spoke, not looking away from a datapad he was consulting, comparing crates and boxes of supplies and his inventory lists.

“I know,” Obi-Wan said calmly, “a month and one week, to be precise.”

Maul cast him a pointedly unamused glance.

“If I can optimize the shield generator, fuel might last two. But the generator would need-”

“New thermal relays,” Obi-Wan interrupted softly. “Yes, Maul, I’m aware. But that's not what I came to talk about.”

Maul stiffened, though it was nearly imperceivable, Obi-Wan pushed on.

“Would you follow me?” Obi-Wan gestured to a hall that split off from the main cellar.

Maul’s eyes flickered uncertainly, but he nodded, and Obi-Wan began to move down the hall.    

Unlike the main room of the cellar, which housed food and supplies in plain unremarkable crates, the chests and containers that littered this hallway had distinctly more decorative exteriors. Many were locked and bore Nubian crests.

At the very end of the hall was an especially ornate example, a large filigree chest that seemed to shift and sparkle even in the dull cellar light.   

However, unlike the others, this chest was empty and open.

Obi-Wan paused in front of it and waited for Maul to come closer.

“The lock is biometric,” Obi-Wan said abruptly. Now that the moment had come, he found he didn’t really know what to say. “It's from the royal palace at Theed. Once it is closed, only Padme will be able to open it again.”

Maul was standing at his side now, arms crossed with an aura of disinterest that Obi-Wan knew was merely a facade.

Obi-Wan removed Maul’s lightsaber from where he had been keeping it on his belt. It didn’t feel as heavy as before, but now Obi-Wan could almost imagine it felt warm in his hands, that if he did not put it down soon it may eventually begin to burn.

Carefully, Obi-Wan placed the long double ended blade into the chest. It made no noise as it came rest in the satin folds of the chest’s lining.

“For a Jedi,” Obi-Wan began cautiously, “their lightsaber is their life-”

“The Sith have no such sentiment,” Maul cut him off. “And if this is some misguided attempt to spare my _feelings,_ Kenobi, don’t bother. Destroy the blade if you want- it's just a tool.”

Maul began to turn and Obi-Wan had to stop himself from reaching out.

“Wait-” Obi-Wan managed instead.

Maul glanced back, irritated, but expectant.

But instead of answering, Obi-Wan brought out his own lightsaber, and without hesitation, placed it in the chest next to Maul’s.

“Were’t you just expounding about how that blade is your life?” Maul said dryly, though under the sarcasm, Obi-Wan though he could hear something else.

“A past life, perhaps,” Obi-Wan smiled thinly, “Or maybe it _is_ just a tool.”

With that, Obi-Wan closed the lid. Gears shifted and the locking mechanism fell into place, a faint beep to signal that the chest was now armed.

“You’re quick to discard useful tools then,” Maul said darkly.

“On the contrary,” Obi-Wan caught his gaze, “my lightsaber is a tool of peace and trust- I think it is fulfilling its purpose more now, than it ever has.”   

“You may think differently when you find yourself defenseless and surrounded by raiders,” Maul said dismissively, but Obi-Wan was undeterred.  

“Perhaps,” he said slowly, “or perhaps I will find I have something even more valuable at my side?”

Maul regarded him carefully, but without anger.

“Perhaps,” he allowed, and then turned to leave.  

Obi-Wan followed, and already Maul had returned to his many complaints about their supplies.

“Your droid are in bad shape- it will take a day or two to get them back online.”

“Then I will leave them in your capable hands,” Obi-Wan said pleasantly, already heading for the stairs.     

For a final time, Maul looked at him curiously. Like he was trying to decipher a hidden threat behind Obi-Wan’s congenial tone. But finding none, he simply nodded, and returned to his work in the cellar.

____________________________

In the end, it took Maul the better part of the next week to repair the droids. For the most part, Maul was left on his own. But the endless list of mechanical upgrades needed around the safehouse kept him well occupied. The vaporator was finally running clean, and Maul had managed to salvage new thermal relays from another bit of old tech, his efforts to optimize the shield generator the current project that occupied his mind.

But these were only what he worked on during the day as he kept himself pointedly out of both Kenobi and the former Queen’s path.

At night, however, Maul often found himself pacing the courtyard. Mind running litanies of defense upgrades for the wall and windows.

He had not yet broached Kenobi on the subject of leaving the safe house. Maul of course had survived longer and in smaller confinements than this, but he could still feel himself growing restless trapped in these four walls.  

To ease his tensions, Maul tried to fall back into his routines, the sequences and drills that had kept him sane through much of his training. Alone in the courtyard, he would allow himself to surrender to the pleasant feelings that the exercise brought. The closest thing to fighting or battle he was permitted to have.    

Maul moved through the familiar motions effortlessly. The small courtyard providing just enough space to do basic sequences. Maul moved methodically.Of course he could no longer practice with his actual saber, as it was locked uselessly in the cellar chest. Instead, Maul practiced with a well carved wooden staff. He'd spent the past week carefully crafting it himself. Balancing the weighted the feel until it was as close an approximation of his lightsaber as he could fashion. Kenobi seemed content to mediate to keep his bond with the Force strong, but Maul needed more than that. The dark side did not thrive in stillness, it needed action, and fighting imaginary enemies would have to make do- for now.

Maul finished another elaborate sequence. His feet finally finding solid ground again, he allowed his balance to return to his center and feel gravity rooting him back to the earth.

The air was cool, the desert retained such little heat at night. He was breathing heavy from his practice, but the breeze was refreshing as it swept across his exposed skin. His small moment of peace was however, interrupted.

He had only just finished his repairs on the droids that morning- and already he had grown to regret it.

“Lord Maul” the protocol droid, which was the far more irritating of the two, spoke.  

Maul repressed a snarl, _Lord Maul._ It would have been an jeer coming from anyone else. It was only this droid’s transparent sincerity that saved it from being cracked in half by a well placed strike-  that and the fact that he had just dedicated hours to fixing it. Instead Maul made a mental note to reprogram it later. This seemed to be its default programming and nothing more, but better to wipe any memory this droid might have of who they really were.    

“What is it?” Maul said with disinterest, he would not be goaded into yelling at a protocol droid.

“My mistress, Queen Amidala, requests your presence in her chamber.”

Maul narrowed his eyes. This was an unusual development, he had neither seen nor heard the former queen since the day he had arrived.   

“Now?” was the only thing Maul ended up saying out loud.

“It's would be rude to keep the Queen waiting.”

“Of course...” Maul said dryly, shoving his training  staff into C3-PO’s hands. He had yet to decide how he felt about the woman who was Vader’s wife. No doubt she was formidable in her own right, and Kenobi seemed to place her in high regard. And Maul himself was not blind to her threat, he could tell she was predatory in a way that transcended violence.  

-

Maul stalked up into the upper level of the villa. The east side was Padme's quarters, and even Kenobi seems to hesitate to wander around there uninvited.

Curtains sufficed as doors in most of the decaying house, and Maul didn't hesitate when he pushed them aside and stepped inside the room he suspected was her’s. It was a sitting room only because it housed a single couch, it had obviously been intended as a storage closet.

The room was only dimly lit, most of it was cloaked in deep shadows. Padme existed somewhere in that darkness, herself wrapped in heavy dull robes that hid her in the twilight.

“You wanted to see me,” Maul said flatly, leaning against the wall nearest the door.  

“I did.” The former queen spoke in an authoritative voice that did not impress Maul. She had turned to face him now, and he could see the bottom part of her face was covered by a shroud while an elaborate head wrap hid everything above her eyes. Her eye, however, were deadly.

She advanced slowly on Maul, but with a stride that Maul’s instincts immediately recognized as threatening. Involuntarily, he straightened up from his slouched position against the wall. His fingers twitched and he regretted leaving his staff with the droid.

Maul bristled as she got close, far closer than he had expected she would. He held no fear of her- and she seemed to hold no fear of him.

“What do you want-” Maul growled, but she spoke over him, her to tone icy.

“We are going to come to an understanding. Or rather- _you_ are going to be made to understand.”

Maul held her gaze unflinchingly. He had to admit, the former queen clearly knew what she was doing. He couldn’t deny the small shiver that her words elicited, her presence an uncanny resemblance to his old master.  But still, merely a resemblance, an imitation at best. She had no real power over him, though she tried. He let her continue with her charade.  

“I don't know why Obi-Wan spared you. Why he didn't leave you to die on the _Eclipse._ If I had found myself in his position, I would have gutted you again, and made sure you died this time,” she grimaced, but then continued, “but he didn't, and I have to respect his judgement, even if I don't agree with it.” Somehow she was even closer to Maul now, though he refused to give any ground. “So let's get one thing clear,” she continued, “as long as Obi-Wan keeps you on a short leash and you stay well behaved, you may remain. But if you do anything, try anything, I will kill you.”

Maul almost managed to stay impassive, but at this distance the former queen could see the faint curl of his lip, the brief flare of his nostrils.

“You don't think I can,” she said, irritation spiking her words. “Didn't Obi-Wan tell you? He implanted a salve inhibitor in you while your were unconscious on his ship. Your life is quite literally in my hands.”

She had Maul's full attention now. Until this moment, Maul had dismissed her words as empty threats, he supposed this could merely be one more. There was no proof of this inhibitor, he had felt nothing alien in his body, but the Force wasn't always that scientific. And he conceded, It was exactly the action he would have taken had their roles even reversed.

Still, Maul remained silent. He would let her speak and see what her words revealed.

“Did you really think Obi-Wan wouldn't take precautions? That he would just let you stay here without some sort of insurance that you won't betray us? He may be more trusting than I am, but he is not stupid.”

With a touch that was almost gentle, she reached up and placed her hand on his cheek, her thumb resting lightly on his chin, softly but unmistakably holding his face. He didn't resist when she tilted his head to look at her. “Now do we understand each other?”

In response, Maul put one vice like hand around her wrist, and bared his teeth in what might have been a smile.   

He still could not read her intentions with the Force around her so clouded, and she had hidden her tells as only experienced politicians and sabbac players could.

He didn’t not known for certain what cards she held, but he didn’t care.  

He pulled her hand away, nearly crushing her small wrist in his gloved hand.

“You’re right,” Maul said darkly, “Kenobi is not stupid. But neither am I.”

Her eyes glinted dark, but besides that her face revealed nothing.

“So quick to put your trust in Obi-Wan? You will regret it.” She held Maul’s intense stare. “Now let go of my hand, or I will activate the inhibitor.”

Maul could not see her other hand, it was buried deep in her robes pocket. He sensed she held something, though what exactly was impossible to know.  

“Then do it,” Maul said evenly, his grip on her hand unrelenting, “I like my odds.”

It took only a moment longer, and then Maul knew he had won. The former queen looked away, her other hand revealing that she held nothing.

Maul released her arm, and she drew it back pulling it gently to her chest.

“I think we _do_ have an understanding,” Maul said, a smug edge to his voice.

But his self assuredness faltered for a moment when the former queen caught him in a poisonous look.

“I thought a Sith Lord would be smarter than to fall for a Jedi like Kenobi,” she practically spat the words, “I could have used you. Kenobi refuses to do what must be done- I thought you would be different. It seems I was mistaken.”

With that, she turned and left, disappearing into the shadows of another adjoining room.

Maul was left alone, unease despite his victory.

The former queen’s words affected him more deeply than he anticipated.

He couldn’t deny that she was speaking the truth.

He had no way of knowing whether or not the inhibitor was real. There was no excuse. His actions had not been based on logic, rather he had spoken from a feeling in his gut. A conviction that Kenobi _would not_ have done this, despite its logic.

The Force, perhaps, giving him insight. An effect of the Force bond.

But Maul knew how hollow the words were.

In that moment, he had trusted Obi-Wan.

It ought to have made him feel sick- and it worried him that it did not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading. I'm happy to announce that with this chapter the first arc of Enemies and Allegiances draws to a close. I want to apologize if this chapter felt choppy. There were several story threads I wanted to wrap up which sort of accounts for the jumping around. 
> 
> But hopefully you feel satisfied knowing Maul and Obi-Wan have crossed their first bridge, and however tentatively trust one another. 
> 
> They have escaped the Empire and found a home, and now new adventures lies in wait for them.
> 
> When get back there will have been a short time skip and new problems will be at their doorstep. Their new alliance will be tested and Obi-Wan will have to put some of his good intentions into action. 
> 
> Hopefully this new saga will start soon, but it is a new undertaking and finding my footing may take a few tries. I hope you will be patient and stick around. As I've said, there is so much more to come.
> 
> Thank again so much! And if you are looking for something to fill the gap in the meantime, I am Co-writing a work over here archiveofourown.org/works/12768423/chapters/29131530 
> 
> Happy Holidays!


	40. Chapter 40

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow. HELLO. It sure has been awhile! I hope everyone is still excited for this story, we are just starting off on a new adventure. 
> 
> There has been about an 18 month time gap since last chapter. 
> 
> I guess I'll leave it there and just say welcome back!
> 
> If you were wondering what I have been working on since last chapter- I have been Co-writing and wonderful little fic called "The Chains of Despair" and would love you to check that out if you're interested! https://archiveofourown.org/works/12768423/chapters/29131530

Maul relaxed into the dissonant hum of his swoop. The less than pristine engine rumbled and shook the carriage, threatening at any moment to dislodge a weakened plate or strut. Maul could all but hear the rattle of the swoop’s loose internal mechanics, though he wasn’t particularly concerned. He’d built the creature himself, the parts scrapped from junk shops and Jawa’s, a few pieces even salvaged from desert wrecks.

It had taken months to meticulously piece together. The repulsors were still faulty, and the steering swung wide, but Maul was as confident in this vehicle as any he had ever built. He could hear the patterns in the stuttering engine and coughing exhaust, it wasn’t a pleasant noise, but it was one he intimately understood.

Dunes and valleys fell away around Maul as he sped across the Northern Sea. The suns were already hanging low and Maul still had more than half his journey to complete.

And while the desert heat was oppressive and the whipping sands stung his eyes, Maul couldn’t say he minded the long ride.

He felt whole in the desert. He was an anomaly in the ancient expanse, separate and distinct against the featureless rocks and bluffs worn smooth by eons of wind and storm.

Though Maul had never put it in so many words, the desert felt like the Force. Endless and eternal, swallowing anything too weak to stand against it. Like the wasteland, the Force itself was devoid of life, only able to leech off others. Always taking- and never full.

Maul would always feel its pull. He had offered some of himself to the dark side, in trade for powers in this life. Now he was tethered to the darkness forever, and if he didn’t fight, he would be dragged in all the quicker.

And though he knew he could not fight it forever, eventually his body would weaken and his soul surrender, he never felt more alive than when he fought. When he took the very essence of the universe, the space between everything, and warped it to his will.

And so he stood a part. A master of reality, able to dominate the world around him, to take it and crush it and then form it into something new.

The same way he skimmed above the desert sands in his swoop, Maul was separate from the currents of the Force.

Other weaker beings let their destinies be shaped by random rivulets.

_Weaker beings- and Jedi,_ Maul amended.

But Sith did not.

He could only imagine, that if he _could_ see the Force, actually stare back into the void that haunted him- it would look much like the tawny landscape that blurred all around him.

Ancient, empty and bleak. Full of untamed power, but directionless. And ultimately useless without someone to control it.

Lately the Jedi, Kenobi, had been expounding on ‘becoming one with the Force’.

Maul couldn’t imagine anything more dull. To become more sand in the wind, another faceless rock in the desert, _one with the Force._

No wonder Sith for millennia sought after eternal life. To stave off the void forever.

 

Maul made a hard bank on his swoop, skidding it sideways down a steep dune. He’d felt something in the Force, and his instincts demanded he investigate.

He had changed directions and was off again before the feeling even solidified into an idea in his head.     

He crested a new embankment and could hear alien voices on the other side, muffled by the sounds of an overheated sandspeeder. One look and Maul knew what he had stumbled upon. Bandits- and marooned bandits at that.

Maul glanced along the horizon. He’d covered more ground than he had thought, they were still a ways out from the safe house, but it was closer than Maul cared for.

There were only three bandits, wrapped against the suns like raiders, but for the odd montreal or eyestalk that escaped their dress. They stood around their broken speeder, arguing. A second smaller and intact speeder was nearby.

Even from this distance, and under layers of protective wraps, Maul could see they were small, malnourished and dehydrated creatures. The contents a jumble on top the broken sandspeeder painted the rest of the picture. Mostly junk and garbage piled high and precariously tied down.

These were petty thieves and junkers, more likely to steal out of the garbage than raid a home or camp.

But the desert drove beings to desperation. And Maul wasn’t going to take any chances.

he dismounted the swoop. Leaving it just shy of the sand ridge and out of sight.     

Maul’s footsteps made no noise in the sand as he approached and unslung his bowcaster.

It was a handcrafted weapon, based on the traditional Wookie design, but scaled to Maul’s height and weight. Currently fitted with non-lethal bolts- as per Kenobi’s request and Amidala’s orders.

Though even stunbolts in Maul’s very skilled hands had the ability to kill.

He lined up his first shot.

The sandspeeder loaded with garbage had the outer plating lifted up as smoke still poured from the damaged motor compartment.

Maul held his breath and loosed the bolt.

It struck the motor with pinpoint accuracy, setting off a chain explosion that nearly upturned the entire sandspeeder. Sand and smoke blossomed, enveloping the scene. Catching the confused bandits in the haze and confusion.

Maul could no longer see them in the dust and debris, but let go another volley.

The wails from with in the smoke cloud told Maul his bolts had found their marks.       

Maul waited till he heard the sounds of the second speeder revving to life. The limping bandits clinging to it and each other to escape.   

The smoke was clearing and Maul sent a few harmless shots to hasten their escape. The stunbolts richoiting uselessly against the metal plating of their speeder.  

At least one bandit glanced back, their goggles and facial coverings askew.

Maul was satisfied by the look of abject horror that crossed their face.

It was as though they had seen a monster. A demon of the desert, born from the depths of a Sarlacc pit and cursed to roam the wastes.

At least, that’s what Maul hoped they would say later as they sat over drinks and around campfires.  

When creatures died in the wastes, others would come to look. Eager for scrap and junk and maybe to find a friend’s remains.

But when a creature returned with only horrifying tales of wraiths and monsters- few on superstitious Tatooine would dare explore further.

If nothing else Kenobi would be pleased. It was a _diplomatic_ solution.

 

Maul watched the bandits and their speeder vanish on the horizon. The lights from their vehicle barely visible against the first sunset.

Left behind was the broken sandspeeder and it's now even more disaried piles of junk.

Maul kicked at some bad circuitry on the ground, before picking up the used bowcaster bolts which lay in the sand.

Nothing much on the speeder caught his eye. It was mostly salvage that even the Jawa’s had passed over.

Out of bored curiosity, Maul shoved the top layer away, just in case something more interesting might lay underneath. But, unsurprisingly, he only unearthed more junk.

Maul was about to move on, return to his swoop and make the last leg of his journey home- when something on the sandspeed caught his eye.

His gaze lighted on the shiny metal corner of some kind of box or crate, and suddenly Maul sensed a flicker in the Force. It was something _alive._

Interest piqued, Maul shoved away the debris with an absent Force push, revealing a medium sized crate, punctured with slots so air could circulate. Inside, something shifted and scraped against the metal walls.

Maul moved closer, angling towards the side of the crate that seems to have the most holes. He caught the flicker of movement inside as he drew near, the unmistakable glint of scales as sun rays reflected off the creature inside.

Maul let out  a low hum, both appreciative and surprised.

Perhaps the bandits were not complete idiots after all. They had managed to stumble across at least one thing of value.

Through the open spaces, Maul had a clear view of the box’s contents. The creature housed inside was cramped, hardly able to turn within its confines, scales and spikes sticking out through the slats.

Leaning closer, Maul peered inside the box, only to come face to face with the fanged and scarred creature glaring back at him.

There was no doubt in Maul’s mind- the trapped reptilian creature was a young krayt dragon. Hardly more than a year old and not much larger than womp rat.

No doubt the bandits had planned to kill the beast and sell its hide, even juvenile krayt scale fetched a good price on Tatooine.

But Maul had to wonder how they had captured the animal at all.

Even the youngest dragons were fast and wicked, able to match a dozen blaster wielding sentients. Let alone the three useless bandits Maul had scared off with little more than smoke and stunbolts.

Maul retreated a few paces from the crate, his curiosity getting the better of him.

He lined up a new shot with his bowcaster, setting his sights on a set of visible hinges.

The bolt found its target, shattering the crate hinge and knocking one side of the box askew. The dragon inside didn’t need further invitation.

Maul watched the creature through his sights. He had killed many fearsome creatures in his time, and if he had learned anything- it was to never underestimate them.

The small dragon slipped like liquid out of the narrow opening, its scales glowing red and iridescent in the now setting suns. It coiled and circled around its cage a few times, noticing Maul but paying him no heed.

Maul continued to watched, never lowering his bow. As the dragon circled again, Maul realized how the creature had been caught.

One of its back legs was mangled, some sort of birth defect perhaps. The way the creature moved, suggested to Maul it had never known any different. Still, it was slow and off balance- an easy target for hunters.

Finally, Maul lowered his bow. The small dragon was more preoccupied rooting through the garbage of the sandspeeder than attacking Maul.

He sighed, contemplating.

The desert would take care of this dragon. The thing probably wouldn’t last the season, crippled and so far from its clan.

It was a pity, Maul thought absently, krayts were majestic things. Skilled and tactical in a way other large beasts simply weren’t. Maul thought he would like to fight one someday.

But not this one. This one was small and weak, torn too early from its creche to be sold and killed, it posed no challenge.  

Though perhaps if it had a chance to grow, it might still become something terrible.

Maul shouldered his bowcaster.

The second sun was touching the horizon now and Maul had delayed too long. He watched the young dragon a moment longer, its intelligent eyes finding his. It had already ferreted out  a scurrier from the junk heaps and was intently eating the rodent.

The young red dragon seemed determined to survive.

Maul could understand that.

 

* * *

 

The transponder on Maul’s swoop tripped the sensor outside the safe house. Without slowing, Maul approached the main doors to the building, and at the last moment they opened. Maul banked the swoop and skidded it to a sideways halt in the courtyard.

Kenobi glared disapprovingly at the stunt.

Maul did not care.

They were about to have the same fight they’d been having for practically the past year now.

Maul killed the engines and dismounted, stalking over to where Kenobi sat on the edge of the water well. That at least was working properly, water was about the only thing they had a ready supply of.

“Not good news then,” Kenobi prompted. Maul swung himself onto the wide edge of the well a distance away from Obi-Wan.

“No one will barter for fuel.” Maul left off the part where he had told Kenobi that exact thing this morning- _before_ he had spent all day traversing the desert. Though he felt it was implied.

“I’ll go out tomorrow.” Kenobi sighed, turning his body to face the shadowed side of the courtyard. Maul now noticed the small shapes playing under the overhang. Amidala’s twins, moving and making more noise by the day.

“They won’t barter _with anyone,”_ Maul insisted, “Galaxy is too unstable. People are trying to get off world, they need money- not more bantha milk.”

“The vertex then.”

“Hutts get a whiff of crystalline vertex and we’re as good as dead. No. It's impossible to fence that on Tatooine.”

Which was unfortunate, they had several small fortunes worth of crystalline vertex from Amidala’s personal treasury. The crystal chips were meant to be universal money- good on any world. Turns out that meant any world besides Tatooine. Here a single crystal was worth an entire neighborhood, and all the lives in it. Even the most discrete fence wouldn’t keep silent about a possible vertex store.

Obi-Wan gestured helplessly.

“Then we are back to bartering. I’m sure we can find _someone_ who will trade us fuel.”

“We need _money,_ Kenobi.” Maul stood up to pace, they had gone through this conversation so many times. He could hardly get angry about it anymore, though Kenobi was certainly trying.

“The only reliable money on Tatooine is Hutt money- and I won’t go down that path. No spice, no head hunting- nothing to do with Jabba or his palace,” Obi-Wan spread his hands in a pacifying gesture, “I’m sorry but it's simply too risky.”

“Something else then-” Maul contemplated, then grimaced. “Let me make the run again tomorrow.”

Obi-Wan cocked an eyebrow. “I can tell you have an idea, and I don’t like it.”

“You’ll like it less when you hear it.”

With that Maul escaped their conversation, heading for the entrance to his room. He would sleep through the dusk and wake again during the night, his biological sleep pattern having reasserted itself as their time in the desert wore on.

Obi-Wan was left alone in the dimming courtyard, half an eye the twins amusing themselves nearby.

 

 

* * *

 

Maul hadn’t been entirely accurate when he said Obi-Wan would dislike this plan. Matter of fact, Obi-Wan _hated_ it.

Still, it was the only one they had- that didn’t mean Obi-Wan had to like it.

The building they parked in front was just on the outside of Mos Espa city limits, a clever decision to pay less for protection and in tariffs to the Hutts no doubt.

It was a large domed building, dusty on the outside - but what wasn’t on Tatooine - and had neon lights that were entirely illegible in the bright day time suns.  

Maul swung out of the speeder and waited a pause for Obi-Wan, who was still inspecting the building.

“Oh- right...” Obi-Wan mumbled. He had forgotten their covers momentarily, lost in his own thoughts, but now he strode forwards with purpose and Maul fell in behind him.

The doors parted easily and Obi-Wan quickly found himself inside what could easily have been an abandoned stadium. A head were lanes of kiosks and scoreboards for betting, a concession stand that had seen better days, and beyond that the backs of bleachers the rose up to block his view of what must have been the arena floor.

There were no lights on, but the glass paned dome let in enough natural light that the rest of the building was illuminated by the sun streams. Sand and dust motes were thick in the air, and where the sunshine didn’t reach was steeped in shadow.

Obi-Wan paused to take it all in, memories of another arena clogging his thoughts. This was of course substantially smaller- though no less bloodstained he was sure.

“Whatever you’re here for- you’re early,” a voice from the shadows bellowed. Obi-Wan placed it as the district vibrating resonance of a besalisk.

“I beg to disagree, I think we are right on time,” Obi-Wan said warmly. He had never known a besalisk to mind a little banter, and was rewarded with a gruff laugh from the approaching figure.  

“Show doesn't start for hours- pre-bidding isn’t even open. What else are you here for?”

The besalisk moved into a sunshaft, the warm light illuminating the creature’s tan skin gone even darker and more mottled from the suns. Obi-Wan picked out a distinctive headridge that marked the speaker as female, though to Obi-Wan’s human eyes that was the only distinction.

“A business proposition,” Obi-Wan responded, “if you’re interested.”

The besalisk looked at him quizzically, one set of hands absently wiping away dirt on her coveralls. Her eyes then flickered over to Maul, who still hung back near the entrance. He had found a shadow to stand in, only his red skin standing out in the darkness.

Now the besalisk’s eyes seemed to light up with understanding.

“You must be new around here,” she said with a smile, “this is Mos Espa- no reason to be coy.” One hand gestured at Maul to step forwards, he obliged.

“That’s not...” Obi-Wan started to say, but the besalisk spoke over him.

“Not sure I’m your buyer though. I can’t pay for fighters what the Hutts will pay for dancers.”

Maul stopped next to Obi-Wan, entirely impassive to what the besalisk was saying.

“You’ve misunderstood,” Obi-Wan tried again, but was ignored as the basilisk's attention was now entirely on Maul.               

After a moment more of undisguised inspection, the besalisk waved a hand at them to follow.

“Step into my office.”

Obi-Wan heistated, casting Maul a single subtle glance. Maul refused to look at him, simply waited for him to walk forwards first.

Sighing inwardly, Obi-Wan moved to catch up with the four-armed alien.

The “office” was just the lowest rung of bleachers that happen to have a half broken card table and chair nearby. The besalisk took the chair and Obi-Wan sat opposite on the bleacher. Maul hovered near by, eventually leaning against a support column a polite distance away- but not out of earshot.

“Let me tell you how it works-” the besalisk bagan what sounded like a practiced pitch, “I’m Laga- I own this ring and I own those fighters,” one arm absently gestured to score with  a list of a dozen or so names- a few appeared to be hastily scratched out. “I’m the house- and people like to bet against the house.” Laga paused to laugh and Obi-Wan gave a polite smile.

“You’re missing some names,” Obi-Wan observed.

Laga shrugged. “Occasionally the house does lose- that’s why it's gambling. People bring their fighters here to challenge my champions- the rest of the crowd bets. Or just watch- to each their own.”  

“So if I  wanted to... register a fighter-” Obi-Wan prompted, but a large hand came up to stop him.

“I’m gonna be straight with you- you’re better off selling. I’ve been in this business a long time, I can already tell this one's strong and skilled- and as you’ve so astutely noticed, I’ve got an opening on my roster.”           

Obi-Wan tried not to wrinkle his face in displeasure. Even decades of Jedi training hadn’t worn down the sheer repulsion he felt so casually discussing the sale of sentients.

“I’m afraid I’m not selling.” Obi-Wan heard the near imperictble rustle of Maul moving, adjusting his stance- and practically bleeding irritation in the Force. “Surely we could work out another, profitable arrangement?”

Laga made multi-armed gesture Obi-Wan couldn’t quite translate.

“I don’t make it a habit to split profits-” she cast a glance at Maul who straightened incrementally, “but perhaps you could convince me- you gotta name?”

“Seris,” Maul lied fluidly, “what did you have in mind?”

Laga shrugged nonchalantly.

“I need to see what I’m investing. Especially if-” she paused and gestured towards Obi-Wan.

“Ben,” he supplied.

“Especially if _Ben_ is looking for some special arrangements. Where’d you come from?”

“Cog Hive,” Maul moved closer to the table where Laga sat, “and Grakkus’s before that.”

Laga let out a low huffing sound Obi-Wan could only assume was the equivalent of an appreciative whistle.

“I’m starting to see why you don’t want to sell. Not many leave Grakkus’s palace alive- forget the Hive. I don’t need to explain how this works then.”

Maul bared his teeth in what he might have meant as a smile.

“You want them dead- or just to look like it?”

“You’ll be up against one of my fighters tonight- and I’ve grown rather fond of them,” she laughed darkly, “but accidents do happen on the floor of course. If and when you fight challengers, that’ll be up to their owners. You’d be surprised- or maybe you wouldn’t - how many will let their fighters die for the slimmest chance of victory.”

Obi-Wan coughed politely, hoping to redirect the conversation. He liked this plan less and less, but it would be too suspicious to walk now.

“And the Hutts,” Obi-Wan questioned, “they don’t mind this... Operation?”

Laga laughed and banged a hand on the table.

“The Hutts financed this little venture. But I pay my tariffs and they leave me alone. Don’t come around often, Hutts are never interested in watching a fair fight.”

Abruptly Laga stood and getsured for Obi-Wan to do the same.

“Why don’t I give you the tour before I leave you to it.”

 

* * *

 

Laga finally left them in what could generously be called a shower room. It was a grimy damp area for the house fighters to prep, with a door that opened directly onto the ring floor. There was a near identical room on the opposite side of the arena, where that night’s challengers could prepare.  

Maul waited until Laga’s steps completely faded- she had hung around in the hallway outside for a few moments, but finally drifted off.  

He did a quick check of the room for cams or wires. Laga had all but admitted that the competitor’s prep room was bugged. But Maul couldn’t find anything of note, and sat down heavy on one of the benches.  Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow and Maul shooks his head.

“Clean,” Maul said. Which was unfortunate, now Kenobi could tell him how he really felt.  

“I don’t like this plan,” Obi-Wan started in, giving the room a despairing look and deciding not to touch or sit on anything. “It's too dangerous.”

“I assure you- I can handle it.”

“That’s exactly why I worry. The last thing we need is your attracting too great an audience.” Obi-Wan shook his head and went silent.

Maul narrowed his eyes and spoke slowly.

“You don’t have to worry about me garnering too much attention. Laga will want me to lose for awhile before I start winning matches. And even then, it has to look like a good show. Not exactly gambling if I win everytime... bedsides patrons bet and drink more the longer and bloodier the match. Laga knows I’m good, but she won’t want her patrons to know that.”

Obi-Wan shuffled, uncomfortable, and finally sat on the bench opposite Maul. Rubbing a hand across his face and then looking at Maul. His gaze was so tired.

“What was the Hive?”

“Cog Hive Seven,” Maul amended, unsure why the sudden change in topic. “It was a prison. They broadcast death matches between inmates.”

Obi-Wan winced. “And that was _legal?”_

“Take it up with the Gaming Commission,” Maul grunted, uninterested in Kenobi’s bruised conscience. “I’d think you would prefer it that way- death row criminals murdering each other. Better than the sorry souls that found themselves in Grakkus’s pit.”

“The Hutt on Nar Shaddaa?” Obi-Wan’s forehead wrinkled as he recalled the slug crime lord.

“No one bothered betting. You won if you laid still enough in the corpse pile not to be noticed till the night ended.” Maul shrugged. “At least Laga has a vested interest in keeping her fighters alive.”

Kenobi rubbed his face again, like he could purge what Maul was saying from his mind by massaging his temples.

“Alright,” Kenobi finally said, staring at the cracked and molding tile at his feet, “Alright, we try this. But only till we have enough money, I’ll negotiate with Laga to get some payment up front.”

“I still have to impress her,” Maul reminded him, “she’s probably waiting in the ring already.”

Silently, Obi-Wan stood up and moved to the bench Mault sat on, fishing for something in his robe pockets.

Maul watched quizzically as Obi-Wan took out two rolls, one of tape and one of gauze.

“She can wait till I’m done,” Obi-Wan started to unroll the gauze. “Hands, please.”

Maul squinted at him, but finally held out a hand, letting the Jedi take it and begin the wrapping.

They sat in silence as Obi-Wan studiously worked on securing his hand with the tape, while Maul stared anywhere that wasn’t Kenobi.  

His skin still pricked when Obi-Wan’s fingers passed over it. Sparks in the Force where their auras clashed. Strange, but not entirely unpleasant.

“This really isn’t necessary,” Maul said, but offered Obi-Wan his other hand anyway.

“No, probably not,” Obi-Wan admitted, only to continue working.

Maul didn’t stop him.   

 

* * *

 

Obi-Wan looked bleakly down at the device in his hands.

“We’re gonna run this like a real match,” Laga had said when they arrived on the arena floor, tossing Obi-Wan the thick electro-collar he now held.

He looked to Maul who appeared, unsurprisingly, apathetic to the whole situation.

Obi-Wan sent a blip in the Force and saw Maul’s nose wrinkle at the feeling of the small wave hitting him. One cocked eyebrow in response which meant, _what?_

Obi-Wan tried a more precise message. They were still working on this, their communication in the Force. Obi-Wan was always warry how strongly he pushed his thoughts at Maul, afraid their connection might amplify it into something painful.

_Alright?_

Maul very nearly rolled his eyes at him, but instead simply stalked closer. Placing his body between Obi-Wan and Laga- who was distracted with the control for the scoreboard.

“Stop hesitating,” Maul growled under his breath, “or she will become suspicious.”

Obi-Wan bit his lip and fiddled with the locking mechanism on the collar. It was heavy and blunt, rusted in places with what Obi-Wan hoped dearly was not blood.

“I’m not-” Obi-Wan started to say but Maul cut over him with a vehement hiss.

“We don’t have time for your guilty conscience, Kenobi! Put on the Force forsaken collar on me and philosophize on your own time.” Maul jutted his chin out to expose his neck and Obi-Wan almost flinched at the aggressive motion.  

“Alright, hold on...” Obi-Wan conceded, undoing the fastener. The device snapped open and Obi-Wan leaned in close to Maul, moving the open collar around the back of his neck so it could be clasped in the front.      

Maul barely breathed as Obi-Wan worked, the device finally clicking shut and locking against his neck.

Obi-Wan pulled back, his stomach dropping. Collaring another sentient was not something he had ever done- nor had he ever planned to.

Maul, however, seemed to read his thoughts and simply sneered.

“Just because you can see it now doesn’t mean it wasn’t always there.”

But before Obi-Wan could reply Maul had turned on his heel and stalked off to where Laga waited.  

 

* * *

 

Maul paced small circles in the ring. It was little more than a dirt floor, but when Maul bounced his weight on it he felt machinery creak underneath him.

He looked expectantly to Laga, who sat several rows up in the bleachers next to Obi-Wan, who was doing his best not to look green.

Laga gave a half salute with one hand, and with another flicked a switch on her armrest.

The machinery Maul had heard now activated, gear grinding and moving, causing the entire floor of the fight ring to descend lower. All around him rose up duracrete walls until they were nearly twice his height. Laga and Kenobi were now lost above him somewhere. Flood lights switched on and illuminated the pit which made looking up painful.

But up wasn’t where Maul needed to look.

Across from him on the opposite side of the ring was a single door that opened.

Maul watched curiously as his competitor emerged.  

His enemy was a large female trandoshan, probably twice his size and just as visually striking. Her scales were green and iridescent and interlaced amongst the battle scars Maul thought he could see purposeful scarification. Designs and patterns on top of the already textured and complex scaling creating and shifting mosaic with her movements.

Her face was fierce and battleworn, ridges and headspikes only added to her imposing demeanor.

Maul, was not however, especially worried. He couldn’t use the Force in this fight, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t help him. His perception and reflexes were simply no match for those who were non-sensitive.  

While the reptilian’s face appeared set in a permanently aggressive glower, Maul thought his competitor was smiling.

“He’s smaller than I thought, Laga,” she shouted up into the blinding white of the bleachers above them.

“Then it should be quick, Rokia,” came Laga’s response over a staticy speaker in the pit. “Don’t hold back. He needs to earn his keep.”

Ther trandoshan, Rokia, returned her lizard like eyes back to Maul.  

“Wasn’t planning to.” Casually, she pulled off the shirt she wore, revealing the shock collar tight at her neck.     

Maul didn’t speak, but also divested himself of the dark robes he still wore.

In just a moment they were both barefoot and shirtless, shifting into their prefered fighting stances.

Above them a countdown tone started. Low pitched beeps building to the start signal.

Maul crouched low, speed and skill would be on his side.

“Impress me,” Laga’s voice crackled over the speakers and then was drowned out by a blaring tone.    

The matched had started.

Maul moved with impossible swiftness, staying low aiming for the trandoshan’s center of gravity. Maul wanted to unbalance her early on, if she remained grounded it would be like fighting a mountain.  

Rokia had hardly raised an arm when Maul barreled into her, sending all his momentum through his shoulder and at her stomach.

It was like careening into a duracrete wall- and almost as effective.

Rokia took a stumbling step back, but it was hardly the result Maul had hoped for. And now he was too close, he was in her strike zone.   

Maul dropped into a roll, feeling more than seeing Rokia’s massive arms coming down on him. He took a glancing blow from her hammer like strike, before rolling between her legs and swiveling into a crouch again behind her.

He had a few precious second before she turned to face him, and Maul used it to make a precision kick to the back of her legs, hitting what should have been a pressure point on the inside of her knee.

But her scaling was like armor, and without the Force to amplify his strength, Maul simply couldn’t break through it.

Too late, Maul realized Rokia was faster than she looked. She spun towards him, pivoting on one leg, the other following through for a vicious kick.

Maul ducked his head and crossed his arms, taking the brunt of the brutal kick against his forearms and not his face.

But the sheer force knocked him back across the pit floor, skidding for several yards.

At the last moment, Maul managed to redirect the momentum and land in a mostly upright position.

He barely got his breath back when Rokia started to rush him, her pounding steps practically vibrating the floor. Maul knew he was only feet away from the wall, and if Rokia got him up against it- he would be in trouble.

Maul squared off and let her come, determined use her own momentum against her.

He had been over confident, and now was paying the price. If he didn’t get the match back on his terms, it would be a slow and bloody defeat.

The trandoshan fighter barreled towards him, arms out to grab him, and no doubt attempt to slam him into the wall at his back.  

But Maul called on the Force to time his jump perfect, allowing Rokia to get within inches of him before he sprang up and out of her grasp.

He vaulted her shoulders and landed behind her once again as the trandoshan stumbled to change her direction and not crash into the fast approaching wall.     

This time when she spun to face him, Maul was ready. He was in the air and brought his elbow down hard on her head. He heard the satisfying crunch of cartilage and teeth.

Maul landed from his jump and spared a second to watch his much larger opponent stumble, dazed from the strike at her face. Blood was spilling from above one eye, clouding her vision.

However what Maul also saw, was pure unbridled rage.

He had forgotten just how deadly pit fighters could be, they were like cornered and wounded wild animals. It was rarely skill that saw a fighter to victory. Rather it was a frantic, desperate clinging to life. At least- that was how Maul had survived.

And now he saw that look again in Rokia.

He would not underestimate her again.

Maul was done sparring- he was going for blood.

Rokia made the first move again, the same ballistic charge meant to knock him to the ground. And this time Maul allowed their bodies to tangle. Rokia knocking him flat on his back with her enormous weight on top of him. Fists moving in a series of punches to his torso, aiming for internal organs.   

But Maul hardly felt it. They needed to be close for this to work.

Maul gave a practiced thrash, his knees coming up under her to score painful jabs at her gut. When she recoiled, Maul moved.

It was with inhuman speed he went for her exposed throat, his horns catching the soft underbelly scales and tearing a massive bloody gash.

Rokia let out a gurgling cry and jerked back, but Maul locked their legs together and held on. She toppled backwards, trashing to dislodge him, hands trying to push or throw him away.

But Maul had his hands at her throat now, digging his thumbs into the wound he had made, and tore with all his strength.

He was done with fighting. Killing was faster.

His hands were stained to the wrists in blood before he felt the warning in the Force. Kenobi’s panicked and distraught order to stop.

But Maul didn’t get the chance to obey.

Around his neck the shock collar tightened and then activated.

Every muscles spasmed and he went limp. Rokia, still strashing, flung him aside.

Maul didn’t move from where he landed, he fought the electricity pumping through him, but the collar only intensified.

His body spasmed on the pit floor, until finally, the collar deactivated.

He was vaguely aware Rokia gasping and choking nearby. Cursing him with what breath she could still take through her mangled throat.

But he drew no satisfaction from this fight.

All Maul could feel were the intense waves of displeasure radiating from Kenobi, and the lingering pain from his still spasming muscles.

Two sets of hands clapped in the bleachers above and eventually the speaker crackled to life.

“I see how you survived the Hive. Welcome aboard.”

Maul struggled onto all fours, and then eventually to shaky legs. He limped a few steps before getting his feet back under properly.

He glared up into the floodlights where he sensed Kenobi and Laga.

One of them had activated the collar- and he wasn’t sure who.

Without ceremony, Maul grabbed his discarded robes and boots, sling them over his shoulder and stalking t the now open door that lead back to the shower room.  

No doubt Kenobi would want words.      

  


       


End file.
